We consider the problem of photon creation from vacuum inside an ideal cavity with harmonically vibrating walls in the resonance case, taking into account the interaction between the resonant field mode and a detector, modeled by a quantum damped harmonic oscillator. The frequency of wall vibrations is chosen to be exactly twice the cavity normal frequency. The field and detector modes are supposed to be initially in thermal quantum states with different temperatures. We analyze different regimes of excitation, characterized by the competition of three parameters: the modulation depth of the time-dependent cavity eigenfrequency, the cavity-detector coupling strength, and the detector damping coefficient. We show that statistical properties of the detector quantum state (variances of the photon numbers, photon distribution function, and the degree of quadrature squeezing) can be quite different from that of the field mode. In addition, the mean number of quanta in the detector mode increases with some time delay, compared with the field mode.

• Received 22 April 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.063816