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Physical Review Letters

Narrowing Spontaneous Emission without Intensity Reduction

Christoph H. Keitel

Published Aug 16, 1999• 135 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We show that it is possible at least in principle to have unbounded line narrowing in the spontaneous emission spectrum simultaneously with control of the corresponding intensity. For this purpose we employ a laser driven doublet of excited atomic, molecular, or semiconductor states with almost parallel dipole orientation, which is decaying to a ground state. Incoherent pumping is applied to control the population and thus the spontaneous emission intensity of the dressed state associated with the ultranarrow spectral line.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.83.1307

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We show that it is possible at least in principle to have unbounded line narrowing in the spontaneous emission spectrum simultaneously with control of the corresponding intensity. For this purpose we employ a laser driven doublet of excited atomic, molecular, or semiconductor states with almost parallel dipole orientation, which is decaying to a ground state. Incoherent pumping is applied to control the population and thus the spontaneous emission intensity of the dressed state associated with the ultranarrow spectral line.
Spontaneous emission can be modified if the atom is driven by an external coherent field. Such modification include the three-peak spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a two level atom. The spectral line elimination and cancellation of spontaneous emission is possible under conditions that the spontaneous emission from an excited atom can be trapped in the upper states without decaying. The amount of fluorescence in this case as well as the population of the upper levels can be controlled. If spontaneous emission along with atomic transition is suppressed, it is possible to create a population in version on this transition by using a very weak incoherent pumping.
We study the spontaneous-emission properties of a coherently driven four-level atom, and show a few interesting phenomena such as fluorescence quenching, spectral-line narrowing, spectral-line enhancement, and spectral-line elimination. These phenomena can be observed in experiment since the rigorous condition of near-degenerate levels with nonorthogonal dipole moments is not required here. Qualitatively, these phenomena can be attributed to the quantum interference between competitive spontaneous-decay channels in the bare-state picture or the spontaneously generated coherence between two close-lying levels in the dressed-state picture.
We demonstrate coherent control of spontaneous emission from an indirectly coupled transition in a microwave driven four-level atomic system. The transition of concern is not directly coupled by any laser fields, while the ground state is coupled to another ground state by a microwave field. We show that the coupling of the microwave field produces interesting features such as double narrow lines in the emission spectrum. The heights, widths and positions of the emission peaks can be controlled by modifying the Rabi frequency and detuning of the microwave field. We discuss the spectra in the dressed states basis.
The collective spontaneous emission of a pair of two coupled three-level radiators in vacuum is investigated in the presence of a possibly intense laser field. The parameters describing the collective interaction along with the population and decay rates of all involved dressed states are shown to be controllable by the applied laser field. In particular, all populations of the collective system may be transferred at will in a reversible way into a subradiant state, allowing effective storage and manipulation of the quantum system.
Narrow linewidth and high intensity of the fluorescence spectra are two important elements to improve the accuracy and efficiency of related practical measurements, but so far they have not been achievable simultaneously. We propose a new approach to sharpen the linewidth and to heighten the intensity simultaneously. Rather than double coherent mechanisms, it uses the spontaneous emission of inverted atoms in a cavity below the threshold as a resource for feedback control. The spontaneous feedback is simpler in principle and easier to realize technologically, and represents a kind of new way of controlling spontaneous emission.