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Dynamic suppression of spontaneous emission

Hwang Lee, Pavel G. Polynkin, Marlan O. Scully

Published May 18, 1997• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Spontaneous emission can be modified if the atom is driven by an external coherent field. Such modification include the three-peak spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a two level atom. The spectral line elimination and cancellation of spontaneous emission is possible under conditions that the spontaneous emission from an excited atom can be trapped in the upper states without decaying. The amount of fluorescence in this case as well as the population of the upper levels can be controlled. If spontaneous emission along with atomic transition is suppressed, it is possible to create a population in version on this transition by using a very weak incoherent pumping.

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We investigate theoretically the features of the spontaneous emission spectrum of a four-level atomic system driven by a coherent probe field,a coupling laser field and a microwave field.The two upper levels are coupled by a microwave field with lower frequency.The time evolution of the populations is calculated.It is shown that the spectra behavior,such as spectral-line narrowing,spectral-line enhancement,spectral-line suppression,and total cancellation of fluorescence quenching,can be easily controlled by changing the phase and the amplitude of the microwave field.

Acta Sinica Quantum Optica•Jan 1, 2010•0 citations
Spontaneous emission can be modified if the atom is driven by an external coherent field. Such modification include the three-peak spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a two level atom. The spectral line elimination and cancellation of spontaneous emission is possible under conditions that the spontaneous emission from an excited atom can be trapped in the upper states without decaying. The amount of fluorescence in this case as well as the population of the upper levels can be controlled. If spontaneous emission along with atomic transition is suppressed, it is possible to create a population in version on this transition by using a very weak incoherent pumping.
We investigate the steady-state spontaneous emission spectrum of a three-level atom driven by two coherent fields and the absorption spectrum of a weak probe passing through a collection of such driven atoms. We find that the fluorescence spectrum is strongly affected by the decay rates of all the levels involved in the atomic evolution and not just by the decay parameters of the specific transition whose emission spectrum is being monitored. In particular, the spectral components can acquire very different widths and peak heights relative to the case of the standard resonance fluorescence in which a two-level system is driven by a single near-resonant field. An external probe signal passing through the gas of three-level atoms may be absorbed or amplified, as in the standard two-level case, but under specific operating conditions, amplification (or absorption) occurs over the entire range where the atomic response is appreciable. In this case the existence of amplification or absorption is controlled solely by the population difference between two dressed states of the system. We provide numerical results in support of our arguments for arbitrary values of the atomic and field parameters and also develop an analytic description in the limit of strong driving fields that leads to explicit line-shape and linewidth formulas.
The modification of the spontaneous emission spectrum has been studied in this paper in a four-level doubly driven N-type atomic system. In the presence of two coherent fields, emphasis has been given to studying the spectral distribution of spontaneous emission in the relaxation process of the initially prepared excited level. The phenomenon of quantum interference dynamically induced in the system by these fields can significantly change the spontaneous emission spectrum. We have shown the emergence of a two-peak spectrum where two widely separated symmetric peaks are associated with a sharp dark line at their mid-position. At different dynamic conditions, we have also shown that two symmetric peaks may appear in the spectrum with an extended dark zone between them. Depending on the values of the Rabi frequencies and the detunings of the external fields, one can achieve a large enhancement of very narrow spectral components within the spontaneous emission line shape under different conditions. The phenomenon of suppression of spectral line and the selective cancellation of spontaneous emission have also been discussed. The results shown in various cases are analysed by considering all possible dressed states corresponding to the bare state model. The influence of collision-induced effects on the spontaneous emission spectrum is investigated as a conditional case.
The earliest studies on the subject of spontaneous emission from an excited atom via interaction with the vacuum modes of the radiation field go back to the early days of quantum mechanics. In view of the fundamental nature of the vacuum fluctuations, it was long thought that spontaneous emission could not be controlled. However, in 1946 Purcell noted that the spontaneous emission rate of the atom inside a resonant cavity can be substantially enhanced (or suppressed) over its free-space value. This is due to the dramatic change of the density of modes of the vacuum field in a cavity. The enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission in resonant and off-resonant cavities were observed experimentally in the 1980s. It was also realized in the 1950s and 1960s that coherent driving fields can dramatically change the characteristics of the spontaneous emission. The Autler-Townes doublet and Mollow three-peak spectrum are the examples of such behavior. A dramatic narrowing of the spectral peaks were discovered in driven multilevel atomic systems in the early 1990s. The role of atomic coherence in quenching spontaneous emission fluctuations in the context of laser physics was studied in the 1980s, via the correlated spontaneous emission laser (CEL). In this case atomic coherence results in the correlation of two spontaneous emission noise events so that the spontaneous emission quantum noise is eliminated in the relative linewidth. Later, it was “discovered” that the spontaneous emission can be suppressed through quantum interference between decay channels. Properly stated, this was rediscovered since it was first discovered and explained by Lamb in the 1940s. If the dipoles of two transitions from one upper level to two lower levels are parallel, the spontaneous emission in an ordinary vacuum can be cancelled. In a nonuniform vacuum, e.g., a cavity, the quenching of spontaneous emission can be achieved, even for the orthogonal dipoles.
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.
We investigate theoretically the features of the spontaneous emission spectrum of a four-level atomic system driven by a coherent probe field,a coupling laser field and a microwave field.The two upper levels are coupled by a microwave field with lower frequency.The time evolution of the populations is calculated.It is shown that the spectra behavior,such as spectral-line narrowing,spectral-line enhancement,spectral-line suppression,and total cancellation of fluorescence quenching,can be easily controlled by changing the phase and the amplitude of the microwave field.