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Physical Review A

Collective atomic effects in resonance fluorescence

G. S. Agarwal, A. C. Brown, Lorenzo M. Narducci, G. Vetri

Published Apr 1, 1977• 159 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We suggest that the statistical properties of the scattered radiation in resonance-fluorescence experiments may be affected significantly by the existence of atomic correlations. The scattered light spectrum from two- and three-atom collective systems has been calculated and compared with the one-atom spectrum. The differences are quite significant for weak fields, but become less pronounced as the intensity of the driving field is increased. In addition, we have calculated the scattered intensity correlation function for collectively interacting systems, and found that its behavior is very different from that of the single-atom intensity correlation function, both for weak and strong incident fields. The implications of our findings for the observation of photon antibunching are also discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.15.1613

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1993•2 citations
We suggest that the statistical properties of the scattered radiation in resonance-fluorescence experiments may be affected significantly by the existence of atomic correlations. The scattered light spectrum from two- and three-atom collective systems has been calculated and compared with the one-atom spectrum. The differences are quite significant for weak fields, but become less pronounced as the intensity of the driving field is increased. In addition, we have calculated the scattered intensity correlation function for collectively interacting systems, and found that its behavior is very different from that of the single-atom intensity correlation function, both for weak and strong incident fields. The implications of our findings for the observation of photon antibunching are also discussed.
We have calculated the spectrum of resonance fluorescence and the second-order correlation function for a system of two two-level atoms interacting via the dipole-dipole interaction and via radiative coupling. The method employed is the "master equation" for the reduced atomic density operator. The scattered spectrum is symmetric about the resonant frequency and is altered significantly by the presence of the dipole-dipole term. For large incident field strengths pairs of sidebands are displaced from resonance by (+OR-)(omega)(,R) and (+OR-)2(omega)(,R), where (omega)(,R) is the Rabi frequency. Additional peaks arise when the dipole-dipole interaction is of the same order as the atom-field interaction. For weak incident fields the spectrum consists of a central peak and two peaks displaced symmetrically by (omega)(,d), the strength of the dipole-dipole interaction. The spectrum when averaged over the atomic separation and orientation consists of the central peak and two pairs of sidebands displaced by (+OR-)(omega)(,R) and (+OR-)2(omega)(,R). The central and first pair of sidebands become weaker and broader as the number density increases, whereas the second pair of sidebands is enhanced and broadened. The first effect is probably observable for suitable atomic number densities. Perhaps the second pair of sidebands could also be observed in a careful experiment. The second-order correlation function of this system predicts incomplete antibunching for strong incident field strengths. At weak field strengths the antibunching depends strongly on the dipole-dipole energy.
The resonance fluorescence of a two-atom system interacting collectively with an intense driving field is studied. The first-order dispersion forces, or dipole-dipole interaction, between the atoms is included as well. The scattered-light spectrum is found to differ considerably from the single-atom spectrum even for very intense driving fields, in direct contrast with the results obtained by Agarwal et al., who studied the two-atom system but neglected the dipole-dipole interaction. The effects of collective scattering are calculated on the fluorescence spectra of idealized beams of atoms moving with uniform velocity, for a number of different number densities 〈N〉〈N〉〈N〉.
The normalised intensity correlation function of resonance fluorescence radiation from two-level atoms is studied in various respects. In the first part of the paper the author discusses only interference effects for several uncoupled, linearly arranged, atoms. It is shown that, depending on the distance between the atoms, the direction of observation and the strength of the driving field, an antibunching effect as well as a very big bunching effect may be observed. In the second part of the paper he studies for the case of two atoms and weak external fields the influence of the interaction between the atoms by means of a perturbation theory. It is shown that the coupling between the atoms strongly modifies the normalised intensity correlation function in comparison with the case of uncoupled atoms. He takes as the driving field a coherent external field as well as laser light and thermal light.
The spectrum of resonance fluorescence and the second-order correlation function are calculated for a system of two identical two-level cooperative systems interacting via the dipole-dipole interaction. The results are valid for arbitrary incident-field strengths and for atomic separations much less than the resonant wavelength. The intensity of the sidebands at the Rabi frequency is diminished by the dipole interaction, whereas that of the sidebands at twice the Rabi frequency is enhanced. Both the cooperative behavior and the dipole-dipole interaction act to diminish the photon antibunching, as shown by the second-order correlation function.
The cooperative resonance fluorescence radiation from two atoms separated by an arbitrary distance and driven by a coherent laser field is studied, taking into account the dipole-dipole near-field interaction. The steady-state total scattering intensity, as a function of laser frequency and field strength, differs considerably from the single-atom one for sufficiently small distances. Photon bunching and antibunching occur in the scattered radiation depending on the laser frequency. Practically a full antibunching effect is found, especially if the laser is tuned to resonance with a transition frequency of the two-atom system. This is in contrast to a recent result of Agarwal et al., who studied the two-atom system but neglected the frequency splitting due to the dipole-dipole near-field interaction.
Under usual laboratory conditions the absorption of a beam of light by a dilute two-level medium depends on the intensity and spectrum of the incident light. If the incident photon flux is small compared to the decay rate of the absorber’s excited state, saturation effects can be neglected and only the spectrum of the light is important; thus, weak-field absorption depends only on the firstorder correlation function of the incident light. This result relies, however, on a requirement that the incident beam cross-section be much larger than the absorption cross-section of an atom. Then individual atoms act as low efficiency scatterers and the statistics of the scattering process is governed by the law of large numbers applied to many scattering sites. In contrast, if it is arranged that just one atom significantly absorbs (scatters) a beam of photons, correlation functions of the incident light beyond the first-order must be considered. For a beam that is focused within an absorption cross-section, we might naively predict that every photon will be scattered and none transmitted. In fact, even for a very weak beam there is a finite probability for two photons to arrive at the atom within the excited state lifetime, and in this event at least one of them will be transmitted (statistical saturation). In this paper we calculate the transmitted photon flux for a weak beam of photons focussed strongly onto a single, resonant two-state atom. We study the dependence of the transmitted flux on the statistics of the incident photons. Photon beams derived from sources of coherent, chaotic, squeezed, coherent-antibunched, and broadband-antibunched light are considered. our calculations are based on a recently developed theory of cascaded open systems,1,2 and serve to illustrate the usefulness of this theory.