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arXiv:1601.03557 · Physical Review A

Spontaneous decay of an atom excited in a dense and disordered atomic ensemble: Quantum microscopic approach

A. S. Kuraptsev, Igor M. Sokolov

Published Jul 14, 2014• 67 citations
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Abstract

On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously [I. M. Sokolov et al., J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 112, 246 (2011)], we analyze spontaneous decay of a single atom inside cold atomic clouds under conditions when the averaged interatomic separation is less than or comparable with the wavelength of quasiresonant radiation. Beyond the decay dynamics we analyze shifts of resonance as well as distortion of the spectral shape of the atomic transition.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.90.012511

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On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously [I. M. Sokolov et al., J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 112, 246 (2011)], we analyze spontaneous decay of a single atom inside cold atomic clouds under conditions when the averaged interatomic separation is less than or comparable with the wavelength of quasiresonant radiation. Beyond the decay dynamics we analyze shifts of resonance as well as distortion of the spectral shape of the atomic transition.
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Based on the already-developed general theory (I.M. Sokolov, D.V. Kupriyanov, and M.D. Havey, JETP 112 (2), 246 (2011)), we have studied the spatial distribution of excited atoms and of the atomic polarization that a weak monochromatic field creates in a dense ultracold atomic medium. We show that, in the case of a homogeneous random spatial distribution of atoms, the amplitude of atomic polarization averaged over spatial configurations decreases outside boundary regions according to an exponential law, while its phase linearly increases. Based on this, we have numerically determined the extinction coefficient and the light wavelength in the medium, as well as its dielectric permittivity. The dispersion of the permittivity at different concentrations has been studied. We show that, for dense clouds, the real part of the dielectric permittivity acquires negative values in a certain frequency range. Based on the calculation of the spatial distribution of excited atoms, we have analyzed the character of the transfer and trapping of quasi-resonant radiation in atomic clouds of differing density.
In this work we present a numerical and experimental investigation of the collective early-time decay rates of a strongly driven and optically dense cold atomic cloud. We prepare the atomic ensemble by driving the system to its steady state with varying Rabi frequencies ΩΩΩ that go from the weak Ω≪ΓΩ\ll ΓΩ≪Γ to the strong driving regime Ω≫ΓΩ\gg ΓΩ≫Γ, where ΓΓΓ is the single-atom decay rate. We investigate the early-time dynamics in the transition between the strong and weak driving regimes using: i) angular-dependent observables such as the light emitted by the cloud, and ii) global observables, i.e., the excited state population. When driving the cloud on-resonance, we find that as a function of the driving frequency, the behavior of the collected light at certain angles transitions from the single-photon subradiant regime to a superradiant regime while the behavior of the excited state population does not show superradiance. The experiment shows good agreement with numerical predictions in the regime of parameters under study.
We study the collective radiation properties of cold, trapped ensembles of atoms. We consider the high-density regime with the mean interatomic distance being comparable to, or smaller than, the wavelength of the resonant optical radiation emitted by the atoms. We find that the emission rate of a photon from an excited atomic ensemble is strongly enhanced for an elongated cloud. We analyze collective single-excitation eigenstates of the atomic ensemble and find that the absorption-emission spectrum is broadened and shifted to lower frequencies as compared to the noninteracting (low-density) or single-atom spectrum. We also analyze the spatial and temporal profile of the emitted radiation. Finally, we explore how to efficiently excite the collective superradiant states of the atomic ensemble from a long-lived storage state in order to implement matter-light interfaces for quantum computation and communication applications.