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Physical Review Letters

Spectral Line Elimination and Spontaneous Emission Cancellation via Quantum Interference

Shi-Yao Zhu, Marlan O. Scully

Published Jan 15, 1996• 552 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum interference in spontaneous emission from a four-level atom is investigated. The atom has two upper levels coupled by the same vacuum modes to a common lower level and is driven by a coherent field to an auxiliary level. Interference can lead to the elimination of a spectral line in the spontaneous emission spectrum and spontaneous emission cancellation in steady state.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.76.388

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Quantum interference in spontaneous emission from a four-level atom is investigated. The atom has two upper levels coupled by the same vacuum modes to a common lower level and is driven by a coherent field to an auxiliary level. Interference can lead to the elimination of a spectral line in the spontaneous emission spectrum and spontaneous emission cancellation in steady state.
The spontaneous emission of a four-level atom embedded in a one-dimensional photonic crystal is investigated. The atom has two upper levels coupled by the same vacuum modes to a common lower level and is driven by a coherent field to an auxiliary level. Spontaneous emission can be suppressed significantly due to the combinational influences of the interference effect and the band edge effect. The radiation field emitted by the atom is also studied. Spontaneous emission can be modified by controlling the Rabi frequency of the driving.
Quantum interference in spontaneous emission from a four-level atom is investigated with the counter-rotating terms and the energy shifts included. The atom has two upper levels which are coupled to a common lower level by the same vacuum modes and are driven by a coherent field to an auxiliary level. The effect of the counter-rotating terms in the coupling through the vacuum modes is taken into account by a unitary transformation method. We show how the quantum interference due to the energy shifts affects the spontaneous emission.
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 resonance fluorescence from a four-level atom driven by two coherent fields is studied. If the dipole moments between the two upper levels and each of the two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission paths from the upper levels to the lower levels will have strongly or even completely destructive quantum interference. We show that this quantum interference will result in a complete inhibition of the fluorescence when one of the driving fields is tuned at the middle point of the upper levels. The quantum interference will lead to the dependence of atomic populations at steady state on the initial condition, when both of the driving fields are tuned to the middle point of the upper levels. When the dipole moments are close to but not exactly parallel, or none of the driving fields is tuned at the middle point of the upper levels and there is a small difference between detunings of the two driving fields to the uppermost level, ultranarrow lines at the spectral center appear because of the destructive quantum 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.