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Physical Review Letters

Mutual Coherence and Interference in Resonance Fluorescence

P. Kochan, H. J. Carmichael, Patrick R. Morrow, M. G. Raizen

Published Jul 3, 1995• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study theoretically the interference of the resonance fluorescence from two atoms coupled to an optical cavity mode. Atom-atom correlations induced by the cavity alter the fringe visibility, which provides a measurement of collective atomic behavior. We use quantum trajectories to explain the loss of mutual coherence for strong excitation and propose a phase-selective measurement to partially restore the coherence. A ``which-path'' explanation for the loss of coherence is also discussed.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.75.45

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It has been predicted that when fluorescent photons emitted from an atom in the process of resonance fluorescence interfere with a portion of the coherent driving field, the visibility of the resulting interference exhibits nonclassical features and is zero at the moment when the atom is fully excited and when the fluorescent intensity is greatest.1 We show theoretically that a similar conclusion applies to interference between the fluorescent photons and the elastically scattered part of the driving field, which can be separated out with narrow band filters in practice. This involves the calculation of certain fourth order, three-time correlation functions that have not previously been studied. A possible application of the theory to an interference experiment will be discussed.
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Stochastic perturbation of two-level atoms strongly driven by a coherent light field is analyzed by the quantum-trajectory method. A method is developed for calculating the resonance fluorescence spectra from numerical simulations. It is shown that in the case of dominant incoherent perturbation, the stochastic noise can unexpectedly create phase correlation between the neighboring atomic dressed states. This phase correlation is responsible for quantum interference between the related transitions resulting in anomalous modifications of the resonance fluorescence spectra.