  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.
