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arXiv:1010.3915

Comment on the paper "Electromagnetic Wave Dynamics in Matter-Wave Superradiant Scattering" by L. Deng, M.G. Payne, and E.W. Hagley

Wolfgang Ketterle

Published Oct 19, 2010• 0 citations

Abstract

The paper by Deng et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 050402 (2010)) presents an analytic theoretical description of matter-wave superradiance (Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4225-4228 (2000)) which claims to go beyond previous theoretical frameworks. I show here that the theory presented in this paper is not a description of superradiance per se, but rather an elegant perturbative description of a Raman amplifier far away from the superradiant threshold. As such, it merely is a limiting case of previously known treatments of superradiance. Two additional new findings of the paper are incorrect: (1) The claim that adiabatic elimination of the excited state of the atoms is only possible when the probe pulse propagates slowly. (2) The prediction that superradiance has a dependence on the sign of the detuning of the pump laser due to a phase-matching condition.

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1010.3915

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The paper by Deng et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 050402 (2010)) presents an analytic theoretical description of matter-wave superradiance (Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4225-4228 (2000)) which claims to go beyond previous theoretical frameworks. I show here that the theory presented in this paper is not a description of superradiance per se, but rather an elegant perturbative description of a Raman amplifier far away from the superradiant threshold. As such, it merely is a limiting case of previously known treatments of superradiance. Two additional new findings of the paper are incorrect: (1) The claim that adiabatic elimination of the excited state of the atoms is only possible when the probe pulse propagates slowly. (2) The prediction that superradiance has a dependence on the sign of the detuning of the pump laser due to a phase-matching condition.

We present a small-signal wave propagation theory on matter-wave superradiant scattering. We show, in a longitudinally excited condensate, that the backward-propagating, superradiantly generated optical field propagates with ultraslow group velocity and that the small-signal gain profile has a Bragg resonance. We further show a unidirectional suppression of optical superradiant scattering, and explain why matter-wave superradiance can occur only when the pump laser is red detuned. This is the first analytical theory on field propagation in matter-wave superradiance that can explain all matter-wave superradiance experiments to date that used a single-frequency, long-pulse, red-detuned laser.

The Comment by Wolfgang Ketterle (Ref.[1]) purports to present a viable model of superradiance in condensates. However, Ref.[1] is not able to explain the red/blue pump detuning asymmetry that was first observed recently by us (Ref.[2]). It is clear from our original paper (Ref.[3]) that the rate-equation-based theories of Ref.[1] are incomplete since they only model the final growth stage of the process when a red-detuned pump is used. Our theoretical framework (Ref.[3]), on the other hand, also treats the initial growth stage of superradiance and is therefore also capable of explaining the genesis of the red/blue detuning asymmetry (Ref.[2]). This is the key message of our response, which we frame in terms of reference to the specific points raised in Ref. [1].

We study the decoherence of superradiant Rayleigh scattering from condensed atoms without confinement, by using two same pumping pulses with an interval time. The first pulse is to establish a matter-wave grating, and the coherence between different momentum modes is measured by the second pulse after a variable interval time. Different from the case in the trap, the distruction of the grating owing to the phase perturbation is very fast, and the superradiant process is inhibited very soon afterwards for released atoms. A semi-classical model is applied to simulate this phase perturbation, and the calculation agrees with our experimental results.

The interaction of short and strong laser pulses with an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate is found to generate patterns of recoiling atoms that are different from those seen in previous light-scattering experiments. This phenomenon can only be explained by optical stimulation, showing that the previous description of superradiance as atomic stimulation is incomplete and that matter-wave amplification in Bose-Einstein condensates is suppressed at short times. Our experiments clarify the nature of bosonic stimulation in the four-wave mixing of light and atoms.