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Physical Review A

Dipole-dipole interaction and spontaneous decay of two atoms in an overdamped cavity

Flavia Seminara, C. Leonardi

Published Nov 1, 1990• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Enhanced and inhibited spontaneous emission of two close atoms in an overdamped cavity is studied taking into account the dipole-dipole interaction between them. The system is described in the minimal-coupling scheme and the advantages of this choice for our problem are discussed. The dynamics is investigated using both quantum Langevin equations and Master equation techniques. This last approach allows one to describe the behavior of the atoms plus field system as a one-step process. The case in which both atoms are initially in their excited state and the mode is in its vacuum state is discussed in some detail. It is shown that, different from what occurs to two close atoms in free space, in an overdamped cavity dipolar interaction may modify the decay rate. In particular, we find that the two transitions the atomic system performs to reach its equilibrium configuration can have different rates, and that for a suitable choice of the detuning between the cavity mode and the unperturbed atomic frequency, one of the transitions occurs at an enhanced rate while the second is inhibited.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.42.5695

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We revisit the problem of spontaneous emission by a two-level system in a cavity, concentrating in particular on those aspects associated with the finite propagation time of light between the atom and the cavity boundaries. We find that spontaneous emission always occurs first at the free space rate and there is then an abrupt change in these dynamics when light reflected by the cavity mirrors returns to the atom, leading to interference effects that result either in an enhancement or a reduction of this rate or in a periodic exchange of excitation between the atom and the cavity field. From this point of view, reversible spontaneous emission in terms of single-mode ``vacuum Rabi oscillations'' can be interpreted as resulting from the interference between the multimode partial waves reflected at the cavity mirrors and the instantaneously radiated light. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
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