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Journal of the Optical Society of America

Excitation of a spherical resonant medium by an external field

Demosthenes Dialetis

Published Jun 1, 1979• 0 citations

Abstract

The coherent radiation of N atoms that are excited by an external field is studied close to a resonant transition. The resonant atoms are uniformly distributed over a sphere and the external field is a pulse that propagates in a fixed direction. The linear classical continuum theory is used for the above configuration. Exact expressions are obtained for the polarization, for the fields everywhere in space, and for the energy radiated and absorbed by the resonant atoms. Two equivalent methods for the derivation of the exact expression of the polarization are given, i.e., either by solving Maxwell’s equations and boundary conditions, or by solving an integral equation inside the sample. The equivalence of the two methods, in the general case of an arbitrary external field, has been proved elsewhere. Approximate expressions are also obtained for the physical quantities mentioned above in the extreme cases of a dilute and a dense resonant sample with radius much smaller than the radiation wavelength. Inside the dense small sample the polarization depends on position, and this space dependence is expressed in terms of spherical Bessel functions and vector spherical harmonics. It is shown that outside the dense small sample, a broadening of the original resonant line and a shift of the resonance frequency occur in the radiation spectrum of the atoms.

DOI: 10.1364/josa.69.000882

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The coherent radiation of N atoms that are excited by an external field is studied close to a resonant transition. The resonant atoms are uniformly distributed over a sphere and the external field is a pulse that propagates in a fixed direction. The linear classical continuum theory is used for the above configuration. Exact expressions are obtained for the polarization, for the fields everywhere in space, and for the energy radiated and absorbed by the resonant atoms. Two equivalent methods for the derivation of the exact expression of the polarization are given, i.e., either by solving Maxwell’s equations and boundary conditions, or by solving an integral equation inside the sample. The equivalence of the two methods, in the general case of an arbitrary external field, has been proved elsewhere. Approximate expressions are also obtained for the physical quantities mentioned above in the extreme cases of a dilute and a dense resonant sample with radius much smaller than the radiation wavelength. Inside the dense small sample the polarization depends on position, and this space dependence is expressed in terms of spherical Bessel functions and vector spherical harmonics. It is shown that outside the dense small sample, a broadening of the original resonant line and a shift of the resonance frequency occur in the radiation spectrum of the atoms.

Radiation by the atoms of a resonant medium is a cooperative process in which the medium participates as a whole. In two previous papers we treated this problem for the case of a medium having slab geometry, which, under plane-wave excitation, supports coherent waves that propagate in one dimension. We extend the treatment here to the three-dimensional problem, focusing principally on the case of spherical geometry. By regarding the radiation field as a superposition of electric and magnetic multipole fields of different orders, we express it in terms of suitably defined scalar fields. The latter fields possess a sequence of exponentially decaying eigenmodes corresponding to each multipole order. We consider several examples of spherically symmetric initial excitations of a sphere. Small uniformly excited spheres, we find, tend to radiate superradiantly, while the radiation from a large sphere with an initially excited inner core exhibits temporal oscillations that result from the participation of a large number of coherently excited amplitudes in different modes. The frequency spectrum of the emitted radiation possesses a rich structure, including a frequency gap for large spheres and sharply defined and closely spaced peaks caused by the small frequency shifts and even smaller decay rates characteristic of the majority of eigenmodes.

We present a complete set of analytical and invariant expressions for the steady-state density matrix of atoms in a resonant radiation field with arbitrary intensity and polarization. The field drives the closed dipole transition with arbitrary values of the angular momenta

{J}_{g}

and

{J}_{e}

of the ground and excited state. The steady-state density matrix is expressed in terms of spherical harmonics of a complex direction given by the field polarization vector. The generalization to the case of broadband radiation is given. We indicate various applications of these results.

Based on the already-developed general theory (I.M. Sokolov, D.V. Kupriyanov, and M.D. Havey, JETP 112 (2), 246 (2011)), we have studied the spatial distribution of excited atoms and of the atomic polarization that a weak monochromatic field creates in a dense ultracold atomic medium. We show that, in the case of a homogeneous random spatial distribution of atoms, the amplitude of atomic polarization averaged over spatial configurations decreases outside boundary regions according to an exponential law, while its phase linearly increases. Based on this, we have numerically determined the extinction coefficient and the light wavelength in the medium, as well as its dielectric permittivity. The dispersion of the permittivity at different concentrations has been studied. We show that, for dense clouds, the real part of the dielectric permittivity acquires negative values in a certain frequency range. Based on the calculation of the spatial distribution of excited atoms, we have analyzed the character of the transfer and trapping of quasi-resonant radiation in atomic clouds of differing density.

It is a familiar fact that, in an isolated sphere or ellipsoid of uniform polarization density, the electrostatic field also is uniform. Because of this, the state of uniform polarization in a spherical sample of uniformly distributed two-level atoms is an eigenmode of the coherent decay process in the limit of a small radius compared to the resonant wavelength of a single atom. Consequently, in this special geometry, the Dicke picture of uniform exponential decay should hold. In nonspheroidal geometries or in spherical geometries with nonuniform atomic density, the decay should be more complicated. Here, we find the characteristic equations that determine the eigenmodes of the Lienard-Wiechert interaction for a partly hollowed sphere of identical two-level atoms in two different radial configurations. We show that the Dicke picture for emission from a coherently prepared sample does not correctly describe the system's dynamics even when we take the radius of the sphere to be much smaller than the radiation wavelength.

We consider the radiation from a system of

N

identical two-level atoms coupled to a continuum of quantized em modes, and possibly, to an external driving field near resonance. The atoms can be distributed over a region large in comparison to the resonant wavelength, but smaller than the spontaneous pulse length. Radiation rates and correlation functions are expressed in terms of expectation values of time-dependent atomic operators, which are shown to satisfy coupled first-order differential equations involving similar atomic operators and the initial radiation operators. The corresponding equations for the expectation values simplify considerably if no driving field is present. Similar results are derived for a model in which each atom is replaced by a harmonic oscillator.

The transition rates of atoms inside spherical dielectric particles are computed and studied as functions of the transition frequency and of the physical properties of the host particle. The rates are found to range from about 0.2 to more than 1500 times the free-space value, depending on the location of the atom and other relevant physical parameters. The radiation from distributions of atoms inside liquid drops is also studied. Analytic and numerical results are given for the case of a uniform distribution of excited atoms. Large enhancements of the power output (some 100 times the value for the same distribution in bulk material) are found to occur under resonant conditions.