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Physical Review A

Decoherence from spontaneous emission

Ole Steuernagel, Harry Paul

Published Aug 1, 1995• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Starting from a generalization of the Weisskopf-Wigner model for the case of a two-level atom with a largely spread center-of-mass wave function, we show that spatial correlations are destroyed to some extent by a spontaneously emitted photon. We derive a particularly simple form of the corresponding decoherence function and determine the dependence of the decoherence on orientation and size of a detector registering the outgoing photon.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.52.r905

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Starting from a generalization of the Weisskopf-Wigner model for the case of a two-level atom with a largely spread center-of-mass wave function, we show that spatial correlations are destroyed to some extent by a spontaneously emitted photon. We derive a particularly simple form of the corresponding decoherence function and determine the dependence of the decoherence on orientation and size of a detector registering the outgoing photon.
In this work we review the Weisskopf-Wigner formalism for spontaneous emission considering the spatial modes of light as well as external atomic degrees of freedom, which we introduce in the theory by modeling the atom as a wave packet in momentum space with a given initial uncertainty. We perform a purity calculation in order to quantify the entanglement encoded in the momentum variables of the atom-photon system. Our purity calculations reveal two high-entanglement regimes depending on the initial atomic momentum uncertainty: (1) the Recoil entanglement regime (which arises in the small momentum uncertainty region) where recoil effects dominate the mechanisms that originate entanglement, and (2) the Doppler entanglement regime (in the large momentum uncertainty region) where homogeneous Doppler shifts in the emitted photon's frequency play the fundamental part in the build up of quantum correlations in the system. Physical considerations are made to explain the nature of each entanglement regime as well as provide their respective thresholds.
We have demonstrated the loss of transverse spatial coherence of an atomic wave function after a single spontaneous emission. He∗{\mathrm{He}}^{*}He∗ atoms were both diffracted and excited by a standing light wave with a variable period. After the interaction, the excited atoms decay by a single spontaneously emitted photon. By changing the period of the standing light wave, we have mapped the loss of spatial coherence as a function of the transverse coordinate. By detecting the emitted photon one could "erase" the position information available and recover the transverse coherence in a correlation experiment, or realize a Heisenberg microscope.
In this paper, we present the exact solution to a problem previously unsolved in radiation theory: the emission of a two-level atom in a (one-dimensional) radiation field in the presence of an extra photon. The solution is obtained directly from the Schrödinger equation of the problem using techniques suggested by the work of Muskhelishvili on singular integral equations. The solution corresponding to a finite system as well as the one corresponding to a system infinite in extent are given, although our primary concern in this paper is the finite-system problem. For a particular choice of initial condition, the probability at time t that the two-level atom is in the excited state is found, and the effects of system size and choice of coupling function are studied numerically for a given coupling constant. Our results are compared with those obtained in an earlier paper of the series, wherein the spontaneous emission of a Wigner-Weisskopf atom in a (one-dimensional) field of radiation for a system finite in extent was studied. The physical effects calculated and the conclusions drawn from our comparative studies are all in accord with simple intuition regarding the problem. The paper concludes with some brief remarks on problems in radiation theory which are accessible to study given the methods laid down in this paper.
The non-Markovian correlation spectra of spontaneous emission of an excited two-level atom are derived including the effect of finite size of the atom and all the possible contribution of allowed multipole radiations. The emission process is then analyzed by the quantum stochastic trajectory approach. The non-Markovian effect is counted in by expanding the original system to an enlarged system with Markovian reservoirs. In the case of a hydrogenlike atom with large atomic number Z, the deviation from the Weisskopf-Wigner result is quite evident.
Spontaneous emission of a photon by an atom is described theoretically in three dimensions with the initial wave function of a finite-mass atom taken in the form of a finite-size wave packet. Recoil and wave-packet spreading are taken into account. The total atom-photon wave function is found in the momentum and coordinate representations as the solution of an initial-value problem. The atom-photon entanglement arising in such a process is shown to be closely related to the structure of atom and photon wave packets which can be measured in the coincidence and single-particle schemes of measurements. Two predicted effects, arising under the conditions of high entanglement, are anomalous narrowing of the coincidence wave packets and, under different conditions, anomalous broadening of the single-particle wave packets. Fundamental symmetry relations between the photon and atom single-particle and coincidence wave-packet widths are established. The relationship with the famous scenario of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen is discussed.