Superradiance: An essay on the theory of collective spontaneous emission

Benjamin Fain, S. H. Lin

H. H. Jen

Carsten Seeger, Mikhail I. Kolobov, Marek Kuś +1 more

We further develop the theory of the superradiant laser by allowing for submaximal atomic collectivity and spontaneous emission. In the absence of spontaneous emission we obtain a set of stationary solutions for different degrees of atomic cooperativity and investigate their fluctuation properties and interrelations with respect to the underlying U(3) symmetry. We use this set of solutions to discuss the breaking of U(3) by spontaneous emission. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

Galina A. Nemova

Marlan O. Scully

Recent work has shown that collective single photon emission from an ensemble of resonate two-level atoms, i.e., single photon superradiance, is a rich field of study. The present Letter addresses the flip side of superradiance, i.e., subradiance. Single photon subradiant states are potentially stable against collective spontaneous emission and can have ultrafast readout. In particular it is shown how many atom collective effects provide a new way to control spontaneous emission by preparing and switching between subradiant and superradiant states.

Petr P Vasil'ev, Hirofumi Kan, Teruo Hiruma

The spectra of spontaneous emission accompanying the generation of femtosecond superradiant pulses in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures are studied. It is clearly demonstrated that spontaneous emission spectra of electron–hole pairs, which have been left in the semiconductor after the formation of a coherent collective e–h state, correspond to the strong overheating of carriers. This phenomenon can be explained by the effect of dynamic cooling and nonequilibrium condensation of collectively paired carriers at the bottoms of the bands during the superradiant emission, which was observed earlier.