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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics

Coherent effects in the incoherent channel of resonant radiation scattering from excited atoms

B. A. Veklenko

Published May 1, 2011• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Scattering of a resonance electromagnetic field from excited atoms cannot be described by the semiclassical theory of radiation operating with nonquantized electromagnetic fields. Field quantization effects are manifested in this case on the macroscopic level and lead to evolution of statistical properties of radiation in the course of scattering. It is found that a combined process coupling elastic scattering from an atom and induced emission from the same atom, which cannot be studied by the methods of the standard perturbation theory, plays a significant role in this effect. The process of combined scattering in extended media exhibits coherent properties that cannot be described by the standard refractive index.

DOI
10.1134/s1063776111040121

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Scattering of a resonance electromagnetic field from excited atoms cannot be described by the semiclassical theory of radiation operating with nonquantized electromagnetic fields. Field quantization effects are manifested in this case on the macroscopic level and lead to evolution of statistical properties of radiation in the course of scattering. It is found that a combined process coupling elastic scattering from an atom and induced emission from the same atom, which cannot be studied by the methods of the standard perturbation theory, plays a significant role in this effect. The process of combined scattering in extended media exhibits coherent properties that cannot be described by the standard refractive index.
The evolution of a quantized electromagnetic field in a thermally excited dispersion medium is determined by two scattering channels. The coherent channel is formed exclusively by the elastic scattering of quanta. The incoherent channel, along with elastic scattering processes, necessarily contains inelastic scattering processes, including induced radiation. Interference between the channels is absent because of the orthogonality of the wave functions of the medium in its final states, which correspond to different scattering channels. Therefore, in an excited medium, interference processes that are not described by its refractive index may arise. An interference pattern of this kind can be formed, in particular, as a result of the superposition of the resonance radiation incident on an excited medium and the radiation reflected from this medium. In this case, the conventional perturbation theory proves to be inadequate.
Quantum electrodynamics is a very cumbersome theory, and one tries to avoid it in applied problems. Experience shows that the semiclassical theory of radiation, which operates with a nonquantized elec� tromagnetic field, provides, as a rule, required accu� racy of calculations. The authority of the semiclassical theory of radiation has grown greatly, because it describes adequately the operation of quantum devices such as lasers. In this work we present an example that demon� strates the inadequacy of the semiclassical theory of radiation. It is shown that, upon resonance scattering of an electromagnetic field by excited systems, quanti� zation of the electromagnetic field is necessary and the consequences of this operation manifest themselves at the macroscopic level. Suppose that resonance radiation is scattered by a certain system, the initial state of which is described in the interaction representation by the wave function . The total wave function of the electromagnetic field and scattering system after the scattering is denoted by . Expansion of the function in terms of the basis of the wave functions of the scatterer has the form
According to quantum electrodynamics, the cross section for resonant scattering of radiation on an aggregate of excited atoms can be written as a sum of positive definite terms. This type of structure is not consistent with the Fresnel formulas for the reflection coefficient of radiation from thermally excited media. The difference shows up on a macroscopic level and indicates that semiclassical radiation theory cannot be used. A study of the correlation between elastic scattering and stimulated emission processes clarifies the reason for the discrepancies. The resulting singularities require summing of Feynman diagrams which appear beginning in the sixth order of perturbation theory. A lower bound estimate for the reflection coefficient from a plane layer is given, including processes which violate the statistics of radiation. The contribution of stimulated emission processes caused by the initially scattered photon are examined specifically. An experiment is proposed which would settle the choice of theories.
A semiclassical radiation theory is developed in which the spontaneous emission field of a two-level atom is a quantum entity represented by atomic operators acting in the Hilbert space of the atomic states. The theory is applied to an investigation of the coherence properties of spontaneous emission. It is found that incoherent and coherent components can be identified in the emission field, the former dominating in the early stages of the decay from the excited state and the latter dominating in the later stages or in the emission from a weakly excited atom. The single-atom coherence properties are shown to lead to well-known superradiance phenomena in the spontaneous emission from an assembly of similar atoms. The paper does not use the theory of quantum electrodynamics; it builds on knowledge at the undergraduate level of classical radiation theory and the quantum mechanics of atoms.
A new method for calculating the density matrix of a quantized electromagnetic field which interacts with the environment in the presence of kinetic processes in the medium is suggested. This method accurately takes into account photon-photon quantum correlators and possesses certain symmetry properties, which substantially facilitate the summation of the Feynman diagrams that arise in the calculations. Forward scattering of resonance radiation by two-level gas atoms in a magnetic field is considered as an application. Insufficiency of a semiclassical description of this coherent process in excited media with the use of the unique tensor index of refraction is shown to follow from quantum electrodynamics. The introduction of one more function depending on the frequency of irradiation and the concentration of excited atoms is necessary. Experiments that simultaneously determine both this additional function and the standard refractive index of the medium are specified.
It is shown that coherent processes of elastic scattering of resonant radiation form a “buffer” electromagnetic field near the boundary of excited media. This part of radiation is not governed by the standard refractive index, but precisely this part of radiation forms the beams reflected and refracted by the excited medium. The presence of the “buffer” field causes the suppression of stimulated emission near the boundary and leads to the appearance of a frequency angular broadening of the beam transmitted through a thin film of excited atoms at an oblique angle.