Quantum feedback in strongly coupled systems can probe a regime where one quantum of excitation is a large fluctuation. We present theoretical and experimental studies of quantum feedback in an optical cavity QED system. The time evolution of the conditional state, following a photodetection, can be modified by changing the drive of the cavity. For the appropriate feedback, the conditional state can be captured in a new steady state and then released. The feedback protocol requires resonance operation, and proper amplitude and delay for the change in the drive. We demonstrate the successful use of feedback in the suppression of the vacuum Rabi oscillations for the length of the feedback pulse and their subsequent return to steady state. The feedback works only because we have an entangled quantum system, rather than an analogous correlated classical system.

• Received 14 October 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.70.023819