Polarization and interference effects in radiation processes

G. G. Adonts, Eghine G. Kanetsyan, Mikayel Arzakantsyan

The general nonlinear stationary theory of propagation of an elliptically polarized pulse that resonantly interacts with the 1/2-1/2 transition is developed taking into account relaxation processes. It is shown that interference of magnetic sublevels in the field of polarized radiation that optically pumps atoms results in inversionless amplification of radiation. Taking into account the Doppler broadening of spectral lines shows that there exists a certain optimal length of the resonant medium along which the radiation that emerges from the medium is maximally amplified.

Michel Rousseau, J.P. MATHIEU

T. Wong, S. M. Tan, Matthew J. Collett +1 more

In a recent experiment by Eichmann et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2359 (1993)], polarization-sensitive measurements of the fluorescence from two four-level ions driven by a linearly polarized laser were made. Depending on the polarization chosen, different degrees of interference were observed. We carry out a theoretical and numerical study of this system, showing that the results can largely be understood by treating the atoms as independent radiators which are synchronized by the phase of the incident laser field. The interference and its loss may be described in terms of the difference between coherent and incoherent driving of the various atomic transitions in the steady state. In the numerical simulations, which are carried out using the Monte Carlo wave-function method, we remove the assumption that the atoms radiate independently and consider the photodetection process in detail. This allows us to see the total interference pattern build up from individual photodetections and also to see the effects of superfluorescence, which become important when the atomic separation is comparable to an optical wavelength. The results of the calculations are compared with the experiment. We also carry out simulations in the non-steady-state regime and discuss the relationship between the visibility of the interference pattern and which-path considerations.

V. M. Arutyunyan, Eghine G. Kanetsyan, V. O. Chaltykyan

Mordechai Bixon, Joshua Jortner, Yossef Dothan

In this paper we present a study of the radiative decay of coherently excited, closely spaced, molecular (or atomic) levels. Interference effects in the decay process cannot be treated in general by displaying the damping matrix in a diagonal form, so that each decay channel is assumed to be characterized by its own lifetime. The problem of the radiative decay of coherently excited indistinguishable levels (characterized by the same symmetry) is treated by a self-consistent extension of the Wigner-Weisskopf method, or alternatively, by the ‘unitarity relations’ method, developed in elementary particles physics. Finally, the Fano configuration interaction method is applied for the decay of a manifold of states characterized by the same polarization. General expressions for photon counting rates are derived and the nature of a general quantum beat experiment is discussed.

Sune R. Svanberg