The resonance fluorescence emitted by a system of two dipole-dipole interacting nearby four-level atoms in J = 1/2 ↔ J = 1/2 configuration is studied. This setup is the simplest realistic model system which provides a complete description of the (interatomic) dipole-dipole interaction for arbitrary orientation of the interatomic distance vector, and at the same time allows for intraatomic spontaneously generated coherences. We discuss different methods to analyze the contribution of the various vacuum-induced coupling constants to the total resonance fluorescence spectrum. These allow us to find a dressed state interpretation of the contribution of the different interatomic dipoledipole couplings to the total spectrum. We further study the role of the spontaneously generated coherences, and identify two different contributions to the single-particle vacuum-induced couplings. We show that they have a noticeable impact on the total resonance fluorescence spectrum down to small interatomic distances, even though the dipole-dipole couplings constants then are much larger in magnitude than the the single-particle coupling constants. Interestingly, we find that the interatomic couplings can induce an effect of the intraatomic spontaneously generated coherences on the observed spectra which is not present in single-atom systems.

In two nearby atoms, the dipole-dipole interaction can couple transitions with orthogonal dipole moments. This orthogonal coupling accounts for a number of interesting effects, but strongly depends on the geometry of the setup. Here, we discuss several setups of interest where the geometry is not fixed, such as particles in a trap or gases, by averaging over different sets of geometries. Two averaging methods are compared. In the first method, it is assumed that the internal electronic evolution is much faster than the change of geometry, whereas in the second, it is vice versa. We find that the orthogonal coupling typically survives even extensive averaging over different geometries, albeit with qualitatively different results for the two averaging methods. Typically, one-and two-dimensional averaging ranges modeling, e.g., low-dimensional gases, turn out to be the most promising model systems.

A system of three coupled toroidal microresonators arranged in a loop configuration is studied. This setup allows light entering the resonator setup from a tapered fiber to evolve along a variety of different pathways before leaving again through the fiber. In particular, the loop configuration of the resonators allows for an evolution which we term roundtrip process, in which the light evolves from one resonator sequentially through all others back to the initial one. This process renders the optical properties of the system sensitive to the phases of all coupling and scattering constants in the system. We analyze the transmission and reflection spectra, and interpret them in terms of interference between the various possible evolution pathways through the resonator system. In particular, we focus on the phase dependence of the optical properties. Finally, we discuss possible applications for this phase sensitivity induced by the roundtrip process, such as the measurement of the position of a nanoparticle close to one of the resonators, and the measurement of changes in the refractive index between two resonators. Our analytical results for the applications are supported by proof-of-principle calculations based on finite-difference-time-domain solution of Maxwell's equations in two dimensions on a grid.

In the Terahertz (THz) domain, we investigate both numerically and experimentally the directional emission of whispering gallery mode resonators that are perturbed by a small scatterer in the vicinity of the resonators rim. We determine quality factor degradation, the modal structure and the emission direction for various geometries. We find that scatterers do allow for directional emission without destroying the resonator's quality factor. This finding allows for new geometries and outcoupling scenarios for active whispering gallery mode structures such as quantum cascade lasers and passive resonators such as evanescent sensors. The experimental results agree well with finite difference time domain simulations.

A three-level atom in the Λ-configuration coupled to a microcavity is studied. The two transitions of the atom are assumed couple to different counterpropagating mode pairs in the cavity. We analyze the dynamics both, in the strong-coupling and the bad cavity limit. We find that compared to a twolevel setup, the third atomic state and the additional control field modes crucially modify the system dynamics and enable more advanced control schemes. All results are explained using appropriate dressed state and eigenmode representations. As potential applications, we discuss optical switching and turnstile operations and detection of particles close to the resonator surface.