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Physical Review A

Superradiance and optical free induction

Ronald E. Jodoin, L. Mandeļ

Published Nov 1, 1974• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is argued that superradiant processes are those in which the radiative response of an atom to an excitation is appreciably influenced by interactions with its neighbors, rather than processes in which the output intensity is proportional to the square of the number $N$ of atoms. On the basis of this criterion, optical free induction is a limiting response of an inhomogeneously broadened system in which cooperative effects become very small, but in which there is a strict ${N}^{2}$ dependence. In such a system, superradiance is manifest by a departure of the output from an ${N}^{2}$ dependence. Expressions are derived for the free induction response of an atomic system to an arbitrary excitation pulse, and are reduced to simple analytic forms in certain special cases. The free induction and superradiant responses are compared under conditions in which the inhomogeneous lifetime is shorter than the superradiance time $\frac{1}{N\ensuremath{\beta}}$, and an error in a previously published curve is corrected.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.10.1898

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Physical Review A•May 1, 1970•13 citations
It is argued that superradiant processes are those in which the radiative response of an atom to an excitation is appreciably influenced by interactions with its neighbors, rather than processes in which the output intensity is proportional to the square of the number NNN of atoms. On the basis of this criterion, optical free induction is a limiting response of an inhomogeneously broadened system in which cooperative effects become very small, but in which there is a strict N2{N}^{2}N2 dependence. In such a system, superradiance is manifest by a departure of the output from an N2{N}^{2}N2 dependence. Expressions are derived for the free induction response of an atomic system to an arbitrary excitation pulse, and are reduced to simple analytic forms in certain special cases. The free induction and superradiant responses are compared under conditions in which the inhomogeneous lifetime is shorter than the superradiance time 1N\ensuremathβ\frac{1}{N\ensuremath{\beta}}N\ensuremathβ1​, and an error in a previously published curve is corrected.
The problem of superradiant emission from a small atomic system is treated under conditions in which the effects of inhomogeneous broadening are important, as in a solid. The treatment is semiclassical, with the assumption that all atoms see the same electromagnetic field. A set of coupled integrodifferential equations is obtained characterizing the state of each atom of resonant frequency \ensuremath{\omega} at time ttt. It is found that, in general, atoms of different frequencies evolve differently in time, whether or not they start from the same initial state. The effect of the inhomogeneous broadening is generally to delay the onset and to reduce the amplitude of the superradiant pulse. Some effects of inhomogeneous broadening are manifest even when the inhomogeneous lifetime is much longer than the usual superradiance time. When the atomic system starts in the ground state and is then exposed to a coherent excitation pulse, superradiant effects can appear even when the inhomogeneous lifetime is very short compared with the usual superradiance time.
This paper augments previous theoretical descriptions of superradiance in an extended optically thick medium by giving expressions which limit the length and density of a high-gain system which can superradiate as a whole, or equivalently, the shortness of its output radiation pulses. Limits arising from experimental conditions such as finite inversion time, finite decay and dephasing times, finite transit time (cooperation length), feedback, diffraction, and Fresnel number not approximately one, are discussed. Modifications to the simple analytical expressions for the output radiation of the superradiant system due to each of these effects are described in detail. Detailed computer results are also given.
We introduce a straightforward quantum-electrodynamic approach to the problem of superradiant spontaneous emission from a system of two-level atoms, and also discuss two classical superradiant systems. The same physical concepts underlie our treatment of both the quantum and classical cases. Explicit expressions are found which describe the time evolution and directional character of the radiated power. Our approach applies to an arbitrary number of atoms which are confined to a region with linear dimensions which may be large compared with the mean wavelength of the emitted radiation. The radiative decay half-life of a large many-atom system is found to be much shorter than the natural lifetime of a single atom, but not as short as the half-life of a small atomic system with the same number of atoms. The far-field radiation pattern appropriate to the case of a circular cylinder of emitters which have been excited by a plane-wave pulse is considered in detail. Polar plots are presented of the radiation patterns produced when the atoms are excited by a plane-wave pulse. Exciting pulses traveling in directions both parallel and at an angle of 10\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to the axis of the cylinder are considered. A discussion and generalization of Dicke's "coherence-brightening" criterion is given.
In order to study the cooperative emission of radiation from an extended system of NNN two-level atoms, we use the master-equation approach within the Born and Markov approximations. All the properties of the emission of radiation can be deduced from the diagonalization of the coupling matrix $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$, where an element ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}_{\mathrm{jk}}$ gives the coupling between the atoms labeled jjj and kkk via the electromagnetic field. We choose a pencil-shaped volume and study analytically the coupling matrix in the limit for small and large Fresnel numbers. For Fresnel numbers of order unity numerical methods are used. Thus we prove that, for the pencil-shaped geometry, any elaborated model must take into account the interaction of the atoms with the infinity of electromagnetic field modes lying inside two small solid angles about the axis of the largest linear dimension, which we label the zzz axis. In other words, the intensity of radiation emitted by any atom of the system depends on its position with respect to the others and this "propagation effect" cannot be neglected when interpreting superradiance experiments. For small Fresnel numbers the zzz dependence predominates, in the opposite case the (x,yx, yx,y) dependence does, while for Fresnel numbers of order unity the dependence of all three components must be taken into account. Preliminary calculations are given for which only the zzz dependence is considered; for Fresnel numbers of magnitude of order unity or smaller, the effect of propagation along the zzz axis displays large delays for the appearance of superradiance with respect to the time at which the superradiant pulse is maximum when the "propagation effects" are neglected (one-mode model).
Fully-excited two-level atoms separated by less than the transition wavelength cooperatively emit light in a short burst, a phenomenon called superradiance by R. Dicke in 1954. The burst is characterized by a maximum intensity scaling with the square of the number of atoms NNN and a temporal width reduced by NNN compared to the single atom spontaneous decay time. Both effects are usually attributed to a synchronization of the electric dipole moments of the atoms occurring during the process of light emission. Contrary to this explanation, it was recently shown by use of a quantum path description that the peak intensity results from the quantum correlations among the atoms when occupying symmetric Dicke states. Here we investigate from this perspective the temporal evolution of the ensemble, starting in the small sample limit, i.e., when the atoms have mutual separations much smaller than the transition wavelength λλλ and pass down the ladder of symmetric Dicke states. In addition, we explore the temporal evolution for the case of non-interacting atoms with mutual separations much larger than λλλ. We show that in this case a similar superradiant burst of the emitted radiation is observed if the quantum correlations of the atoms are generated by conditional photon measurements retaining the atomic ensemble within or close to the symmetric subspace.
A theoretical model for superradiant damping effect in inhomogeneously broadened media and its application to photon-echo problems are discussed. Only optically thin systems are considered, and all nonradiative relaxation mechanisms are neglected. Numerical calculations are performed for a very wide square inhomogeneous line shape and square applied pulses. It is shown that excitation of the system becomes increasingly difficult as the superradiant lifetime ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}$ becomes comparable with T2∗{T}_{2}^{*}T2∗​. The energy reradiated after the end of the exciting pulse is considerable for ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}\ensuremath{\approx}{T}_{2}^{*}$ and for some applied pulse areas. Two-pulse sequences produce multiple echoes as the microscopic polarizations spontaneously rephase. The first-echo amplitude maximum is found to occur for first-applied-pulse areas increasingly above $\frac{1}{2}\ensuremath{\pi}$ as ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}$ decreases. For a given first-pulse area, the echo intensities increase initially as ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}$ decreases (negligible damping) and finally decrease and vanish (important damping). The ratio of the second- to first-echo amplitudes is found to be proportional to $\frac{{T}_{2}^{*}}{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}}$ for small superradiance levels and to decrease when ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}$ approaches T2∗{T}_{2}^{*}T2∗​. An approximate estimate of this ratio is derived for the region of linearity in $\frac{{T}_{2}^{*}}{{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{s}}$.