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AIP conference proceedings

The Super-Radiant Mechanism, Doorway States, and Nuclear Reactions

N. Auerbach, L. Trache, Alexei Smirnov, Sabin Stoica

Published Jan 1, 2010• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In 1954 the possibility of forming a “super‐radiant” (SR) state in a gas of atoms confined to a volume of a size smaller than the wave length of radiation was suggested by Dicke. The atoms, with two levels, are coupled through their common radiation field. This indirect coupling leads to a redistribution of decay widths among unstable intrinsic states. A strongly decaying SR state is created at the expense of the rest of the states of the system. The connection of this mechanism to the notion of doorway states in low‐energy nuclear reactions is discussed and applications to well known nuclear physics phenomena are presented.

DOI
10.1063/1.3527237

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In 1954 the possibility of forming a “super‐radiant” (SR) state in a gas of atoms confined to a volume of a size smaller than the wave length of radiation was suggested by Dicke. The atoms, with two levels, are coupled through their common radiation field. This indirect coupling leads to a redistribution of decay widths among unstable intrinsic states. A strongly decaying SR state is created at the expense of the rest of the states of the system. The connection of this mechanism to the notion of doorway states in low‐energy nuclear reactions is discussed and applications to well known nuclear physics phenomena are presented.
In the 1950s the possibility of forming a ''super-radiant'' (SR) state in a gas of atoms confined to a volume of a size smaller than the wave length of radiation was suggested by Dicke. The atoms, with two levels, are coupled through their common radiation field. This indirect coupling leads to a redistribution of lifetimes among unstable intrinsic states. A strongly decaying SR state is created at the expense of the rest of the states of the system. Recently the connection of this mechanism to the notion of doorway states in low-energy nuclear reactions, was pointed out. The conditions for appearance of such doorways in nuclear physics processes are discussed.
This chapter considers super-radiance on an elementary level in the sense that the main notions and concepts of the phenomenon will be treated as they evolved in the course of the early studies starting with the classical works by R. H. Dicke. It considers super-radiance from a system with dimensions small compared with the wavelength of the emission that is the Dicke model. The chapter discusses the results to be obtained are also applicable to the single-mode super-radiance of an extended system. It then considers mainly the cooperative spontaneous emission of a collection of N identical atoms confined within a small volume. If the audience wish to investigate the super-radiance of an extended system, the dimensions of which exceed the emission wavelength, the semiclassical method is more convenient. In essence, the semiclassical approach discussed in the chapter combines the quantum mechanical treatment of the atomic system that uses the density matrix formalism with the classical treatment of the radiation field.
The transition to the super-radiant regime in the Dicke model of two-level atoms interacting with a one-mode radiation field has been argued to be impossible for many years. Recently, however, experimental results show that this transition is possible in an open system [1, 2]. Here we exhibit the power of the use of coherent states with restored symmetry to describe the superradiant regime of the Dicke Hamiltonian. These symmetry-adapted states allow for an analytic description of both the ground and first excited states. From these, analytical expressions for all expectation values of interest are obtained, valid for any number of atoms. All these results are exact in the thermodynamic limit.
Recent advances in optical studies of condensed matter systems have led to the emergence of a variety of phenomena that have conventionally been studied in the realm of quantum optics. These studies have not only deepened our understanding of light–matter interactions but have also introduced aspects of many-body correlations inherent in optical processes in condensed matter systems. This paper is concerned with the phenomenon of superradiance (SR), a profound quantum optical process originally predicted by Dicke in 1954. The basic concept of SR applies to a general N body system, where constituent oscillating dipoles couple together through interaction with a common light field and accelerate the radiative decay of the whole system. Hence, the term SR ubiquitously appears in order to describe radiative coupling of an arbitrary number of oscillators in many situations in modern science of both classical and quantum description. In the most fascinating manifestation of SR, known as superfluorescence (SF), an incoherently prepared system of N inverted atoms spontaneously develops macroscopic coherence from vacuum fluctuations and produces a delayed pulse of coherent light whose peak intensity ∝N2. Such SF pulses have been observed in atomic and molecular gases, and their intriguing quantum nature has been unambiguously demonstrated. In this review, we focus on the rapidly developing field of research on SR phenomena in solids, where not only photon-mediated coupling (as in atoms) but also strong Coulomb interactions and ultrafast scattering processes exist. We describe SR and SF in molecular centers in solids, molecular aggregates and crystals, quantum dots, and quantum wells. In particular, we will summarize a series of studies we have recently performed on semiconductor quantum wells in the presence of a strong magnetic field. In one type of experiment, electron-hole pairs were incoherently prepared, but a macroscopic polarization spontaneously emerged and cooperatively decayed, emitting an intense SF burst. In another type of experiment, we observed the SR decay of coherent cyclotron resonance of ultrahigh-mobility 2D electron gases, leading to a decay rate that is proportional to the electron density. These results show that cooperative effects in solid-state systems are not merely small corrections that require exotic conditions to be observed; rather, they can dominate the nonequilibrium dynamics and light emission processes of the entire system of interacting electrons.
Quantum wires, loosely bound nuclei, molecules in chemical reactions and exotic narrow pentaquark states are different examples of open quantum mesoscopic systems. The coupling with and through continuum is their common feature. We discuss general properties of quantum systems in the regime of strong continuum coupling, when the mechanism of Dicke super‐radiance changes intrinsic dynamics, signatures of quantum chaos, lifetime of unstable states and reaction cross sections. The examples are shown for various areas of mesoscopic physics.
In a recent paper [1], the emission of radiation from an ensemble of N atoms excited by a single photon was studied. That paper stimulated spirited discussions and debate. For example, it was argued at the 2006 Volga River conference on quantum control that the important conclusion that follows from the nuclear physics γ-ray studies of this problem was the prediction of the suppression of the resonance level width. In this connection, the results of [1] were argued to be incorrect since no line narrowing was reported. In the present paper, it is shown that there is no radiative suppression associated with the Dicke state given in [1]. However, the interplay between quantum optics (Dicke super and subradiant states) and nuclear physics (forward scattering of γ radiation) provides interesting problems and insights. The present paper is derived from the authors’ lectures and discussions on the subject and is intended to be pedagogical.