We propose and analyze a scheme for photon trapping in an optical resonator coupled with two-level atoms. We show that when the cavity is excited by two identical light fields, one from each end of the cavity, the output light from the cavity is suppressed while the intracavity light field is nearmaximum due to the excitation of the polariton state of the coupled cavity and atom system. We also present methods for the direct probing of the trapped polariton state. The photon trapping is manifested by the destructive interference of the transmitted light and the incident light, which is conditioned on the presence of incoherent processes such as spontaneous decay of the atomic excitation of the polariton state. Such photon trapping is quite generic and should be observable experimentally in a variety of cavity quantum electrodynamics systems.

• Received 11 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.023824