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Physical Review A

Spontaneous emission from a three-level atom

Shi-Yao Zhu, Ricky C. F. Chan, Chin Pang Lee

Published Jul 1, 1995• 214 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum interference between decay processes from two upper levels, which are coupled by the same vacuum modes to a lower level, have been investigated and its effects on the spontaneous emission spectrum have been studied. The interference can result in spectral narrowing and a black dark line in the spectrum. The population in the upper levels is not a simple exponential decay due to the interference.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.52.710

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Physical Review A•May 29, 2002•54 citations
Quantum interference between decay processes from two upper levels, which are coupled by the same vacuum modes to a lower level, have been investigated and its effects on the spontaneous emission spectrum have been studied. The interference can result in spectral narrowing and a black dark line in the spectrum. The population in the upper levels is not a simple exponential decay due to the interference.
Interference effects between decay processes from two upper levels, which are coupled by the same vacuum modes to a lower level and are driven by a strong coherent field, on the spontaneous emission spectrum have been studied. The interference could lead to population trapping in the upper levels, two dark lines in the spectrum and spectral narrowing. The spectral narrowing depends on the ratio of the two upper levels' decay rates and the Rabi frequency of the driving field. One can change the spectrum by varying the Rabi frequency, an experimentally controllable parameter.
We study the influence of quantum interference on the spontaneous emission from an excited two-level atom when either the atomic upper or lower level is coupled by a coherent field to a third, usually higher-lying, state. In the case of the upper level coupling, destructive quantum interference between two competing decay amplitudes produces a dark line in the emission spectrum, a phenomenon that should not be confused with the well known population trapping, and a narrowing of one of the two side lobes that make up the spectral profile. Quantum interference is absent, instead, in the case of the lower level coupling, and the spectrum modified by the external driving field is just the incoherent superposition of two Lorentzian lines. We suggest a physical interpretation of these results. In addition, we compare the analytic predictions of the simplest nontrivial versions of these models with more realistic but nonanalytic descriptions and show, numerically, that the interference effects persist in the upper level case even when additional complications are taken into account.
The quantum interference in the spontaneous-emission spectrum of a driven atom, when the upper level of the atomic transition is coupled to a third level via a classical driving field, results in a dark line in the absence of the atomic decays. The existence of the dark line is independent of the Rabi frequency associated with the driving field. There is no such dark line in the spontaneous-emission spectrum when, instead of the upper level, the lower level is coupled to a third level via a driving field. In this paper, we include the level decays, incoherent pumping, and the finite bandwidth of the driving field in our analysis and study their role in the spontaneous-emission spectrum in the two configurations.
The spontaneous emission spectrum from a V-type three-level atom embedded in a double-band photonic band gap (PBG) material has been investigated for the first time. Most interestingly it is shown that there is not only a black dark line, but also a narrow spontaneous line near the edges of the double photonic band. The positions of the dark line and narrow spontaneous line are near the transition from an empty upper level to a lower level. The lines stem from destructive and constructive quantum interferences, which induce population transfer between the two upper levels, in the PBG reservoirs. The effects of system parameters on the interference have been discussed in detail.
Quantum interferences in spontaneous emission spectrum from a V-type three-level and a double V-type four-level atom embedded in a double-band photonic band-gap material have been investigated. We demonstrate that there is not only a black dark line, but also a narrow spontaneous line in the spectrum. The dark line results from a destructive interference or singularities of the density of states of the radiation field. The narrow spectral line arises from a population transfer under joint constructive interferences. The spontaneous emission spectrum is compared to the cases of single-band and double-band photonic band-gap reservoirs.