We study the effect of inhomogeneous broadening of the electronic state on vacuum-field Rabi splitting. The broadening has no effect on the size of the splitting and, in general, does not lead to an inhomogeneous broadening of the split states. From a spectroscopic point of view, these results have interesting consequences, since they allow the extraction of a homogeneous line in an inhomogeneously broadened system. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 28 August 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.53.2711