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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Constructive and destructive interference in spontaneous emission from a three-level atom

Shi‐Yao Zhu, Lorenzo M. Narducci, Marlan O. Scully

Published May 10, 1996• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The constructive and destructive nature of the interference for the spontaneous emission from a three-level atom have been discussed by using dressed states. There is an interference if the upper level of the spontaneous emission is driven by a coherent field, while there is no interference if the lower level of the spontaneous emission is driven by the field. What interference (constructive or destructive one) we will get at a fixed frequency depends on the initial condition of the atom.

DOI
10.1117/12.239490

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The constructive and destructive nature of the interference for the spontaneous emission from a three-level atom have been discussed by using dressed states. There is an interference if the upper level of the spontaneous emission is driven by a coherent field, while there is no interference if the lower level of the spontaneous emission is driven by the field. What interference (constructive or destructive one) we will get at a fixed frequency depends on the initial condition of the atom.
Destructive and constructive interference in the Autler–Townes three-level systems is studied in the dressed state basis. The dependence of the interference on the spontaneous emission and dephasing reservoirs is analyzed. The strong field correlates or anti-correlates the random phase caused by the reservoirs. The correlation reduces and the anti-correlation enhances the absorption. Each of the interference pathways is formed by two processes, stimulated absorption and spontaneous emission. The interference effect can be neglected if the Rabi frequency of the strong field is larger than the decay rates.
We study spontaneous emission from an atom under the action of laser fields. We consider two different energy level diagrams. The first one consists of two levels resonantly driven by laser radiation where either of levels may decay to a separate level. For such a system we show that the presence of the second decay channel may deteriorate the destructive interference occurring in case of one decay channel because of Autler-Townes effect. The second diagram represents two two-level resonantly driven systems with the upper levels decaying to a common level. For this diagram we show that there is no interference between the two decay channels when the laser fields are described in the Fock representation, while in case of definite-phase classical fields such interference takes place and is partially or completely destructive or constructive depending on the initial conditions and on the mutual orientation of the spontaneous emission dipole moments.
We study the influence of quantum interference on the spontaneous emission from an excited two-level atom when either the atomic upper or lower level is coupled by a coherent field to a third, usually higher-lying, state. In the case of the upper level coupling, destructive quantum interference between two competing decay amplitudes produces a dark line in the emission spectrum, a phenomenon that should not be confused with the well known population trapping, and a narrowing of one of the two side lobes that make up the spectral profile. Quantum interference is absent, instead, in the case of the lower level coupling, and the spectrum modified by the external driving field is just the incoherent superposition of two Lorentzian lines. We suggest a physical interpretation of these results. In addition, we compare the analytic predictions of the simplest nontrivial versions of these models with more realistic but nonanalytic descriptions and show, numerically, that the interference effects persist in the upper level case even when additional complications are taken into account.
Spontaneous emission in atomic system arises due to the interaction of atoms with environmental modes. Atomic coherence and quantum interference are the most important mechanisms for controlling the spontaneous emission. We show that under certain conditions complete quenching of spontaneous emission is possible. By using V type three level system driven by two fields, the phase dependence of quantum interference is investigated. The Fano type and P type interference mechanism in atomic coherence system driven by microwaves are investigated. In particular we find that both phase dependence interference mechanism may be destructive simultaneously and thus lead to spontaneous emission cancellation in different parts of the spectrum. One of the most important applications of this system is the refractive index enhancement.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
We show that a dynamical suppression of spontaneous emission, predicted for a three-level atom [S.-Y. Zhu and M. O. Scully, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 388 (1996)] can occur in a two-level atom driven by a polychromatic field. We find that the quantum interference, responsible for the cancellation of spontaneous emission, appears between different channels of transitions among the dressed states of the driven atom. We discuss the effect for bichromatic and trichromatic (amplitude-modulated) fields and find that these two cases lead to the cancellation of spontaneous emission in different parts of the fluorescence spectrum. Our system has the advantage of being easily accessible by current experiments.
The spontaneous emission spectrum of a ladder three-level atom with an upper transition driven by a coherent field is calculated under a universal model where various decays, any incoherent pumping and coherent driving are taken into account. The analytical expression for the spectrum profile is given on the basis of the quantum regression theorem. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the quantitative criterion condition Ω<|γ ab −γ ac |, under which quantum destructive interference induced by the coherent driving field occurs, is deduced for the modification of spontaneous emission from the middle level to the ground level. The roles and limits of incoherent pumping, coherent driving and experimental configuration are discussed for realizing the quantum interference and reducing the Doppler effects.