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Physical Review Letters

Single-Pulse Superfluorescence in Cesium

H. M. Gibbs, Quirin H. F. Vrehen, H. M. J. Hikspoors

Published Aug 29, 1977• 234 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superfluorescence is reported from an initially inverted, pure two-level system. Single-pulse emission occurs at low densities; neither homogeneous relaxation nor inhomogeneous dephasing nor linear diffraction can explain the absence of ringing. At higher densities multiple-pulse outputs occur. The experimental results are not in good quantitative agreement with present theories.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.39.547

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Superfluorescence is reported from an initially inverted, pure two-level system. Single-pulse emission occurs at low densities; neither homogeneous relaxation nor inhomogeneous dephasing nor linear diffraction can explain the absence of ringing. At higher densities multiple-pulse outputs occur. The experimental results are not in good quantitative agreement with present theories.
We have formulated the quantum theory of formation of the superfluorescence pulse from a pencil-like amplifier. The coupled system of the linearized Bloch equations for two-level atoms and the three-dimensional wave equation for the electric field has been solved in the geometrical-optics approximation for Fresnel numbers $F \ensuremath{\ge} 1$. Several properties of the superfluorescence pulse are discussed. The spatial coherence function of the pulse has been found as a function of the Fresnel number. This function provides a precise formulation of the concept of "diffraction modes." The delay-time distribution function for various Fresnel numbers has been found. The results are consistent with experimental data and numerical simulations.
A generalized master equation previously proposed to describe oscillatory superfluorescence is numerically solved in the case of strong ringing. When the atomic system is fully excited, anomalous fluctuations and large atom-field correlations make the time evolution of the mean quantities (e.g., number of photons, total population inversion) quantitatively different from those found in the semiclassical treatment. In particular, because of fluctuations, the minima of the radiation output are notably larger than zero. On the contrary, when the atomic system exhibits a sizable initial macroscopic polarization (superradiance), we find a remarkable non-Markoffian effect consisting of a sizable delay in the radiation emission. However, in such conditions all quantum effects disappear, as in the case of pure superradiance.
An analysis is made of the conditions for the generation of superfluorescence pulses in an inverted medium of electron—hole pairs in a semiconductor. It is shown that strong optical amplification in laser semiconductor amplifiers characterised by α L ≫ 1 (α is the small-signal gain and L is the amplifier length) leads to suppression of phase relaxation of the medium during the initial stages of evolution of superfluorescence and to formation of a macroscopic dipole from electron—hole pairs. Cooperative emission of radiation in this system results in generation of a powerful ultrashort pulse of the optical gain, which interacts coherently with the semiconductor medium. It is shown that coherent pulsations of the optical field, observed earlier by the author in Q -switched semiconductor lasers, are the result of superfluorescence and of the coherent interaction between the optical field and the medium.
We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study on superfluorescence in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength regime. Focusing a free-electron laser pulse in a cell filled with Xe gas, the medium is quasi-instantaneously population inverted by 4d-shell ionization on the giant resonance followed by Auger decay. On the timescale of ∼10 ps to ∼100 ps (depending on parameters) a macroscopic polarization builds up in the medium, resulting in superfluorescent emission of several Xe lines in the forward direction. As the number of emitters in the system is increased by either raising the pressure or the pump-pulse energy, the emission yield grows exponentially over four orders of magnitude and reaches saturation. With increasing yield, we observe line broadening, a manifestation of superfluorescence in the spectral domain. Our novel theoretical approach, based on a full quantum treatment of the atomic system and the irradiated field, shows quantitative agreement with the experiment and supports our interpretation.