Cooperative quantum electrodynamical processes in an ellipsoidal cavity

We investigate spontaneous photon emission and absorption processes of two two- level atoms trapped close to the focal points of an ellipsoidal cavity, thereby taking into account the full multimode scenario. In particular, we calculate the excitation probabilities of the atoms by describing the field modes semiclassically. Based on this approach, we express the excitation probabilities by a semiclassical photon path representation. Due to the special property of an ellipsoidal cavity of having two focal points, we are able to study interesting intermediate instances between well-known quantum-optical scenarios. Furthermore, the semiclassical photon path representation enables us to address the corresponding retardation effects and causality questions in a straightforward manner.