Matter-field entropy transfer in stimulated photoassociation
Amichay Vardi, Moshe Shapiro
We study the quantum statistics of stimulated photoassociation, using system-reservoir dynamics. We show that, contrary to ``common wisdom,'' spontaneous emission is not the only mechanism by which entropy loss from a material system to a radiation field can occur. By formally treating the matter waves as the bath and the stimulating radiation field as the system, we are able to derive a Lindblad-type equation for the time dependence of the reduced radiation density matrix and show that entropy exchange between matter and radiation in stimulated photoassociation is indeed possible.
Physical Review A•Jul 14, 2000•5 citations