Optical bistability with two-level atoms

One of the attractions of the study of optical interactions is that tractable and to a large extent solvable theoretical models do in fact provide realistic descriptions of many experiments. In both theory and experiment many phenomena in quantum optics are rather stark in their conceptual simplicity and as such serve as ideal proving grounds for ideas from numerous areas of physics. Some of the most striking tests of quantum electrodynamics and indeed of the conceptual basis of quantum mechanics have been provided by experiments in quantum optics. Given the capability both to realize experimentally and to describe theoretically a diversity of phenomena and to do this in quantitative detail, it is then an exciting prospect to search for the limits of the validity of our understanding