Superradiance: Theories Versus Experiments

Satoshi Uetake

Albert T. Rosenberger, Samuel J. Petuchowski, Thomas A. DeTemple

Hermann Uys, Pierre Meystre

We study superradiant Raman scattering from an ultracold, but finite, temperature Bose gas in a harmonic trap. Numerical simulations indicate the existence of distinct time scales associated with the decoherence of the condensed versus thermal fractions, and the concomitant preferred scattering from atoms in low-lying trap states in the regime where superradiance takes place on a time scale comparable to an inverse trap frequency. As a consequence the scattered atoms experience a modest reduction in temperature as compared to the unscattered atoms.

L. I. Men’shikov

Moritz Cygorek, Eleanor Scerri, Ted Silva Santana +3 more

Indistinguishable quantum emitters confined to length scales smaller than the wavelength of the light become superradiant. Compared to uncorrelated and distinguishable emitters, superradiance results in qualitative modifications of optical signals such as photon coincidences. However, recent experiments revealed that similar signatures can also be obtained in situations where emitters are too far separated to be superradiant if correlations between emitters are induced by the wave-function collapse during an emission-angle-selective photon detection event. Here, we compare two sources for cooperative emission, superradiance and measurement-induced cooperativity, and analyze their impact on time-dependent optical signals. We find that an antidip in photon coincidences at zero time delay is a signature of interemitter correlations in general but does not unambiguously prove the presence of superradiance. This suggests that photon coincidences at zero time delay alone are not sufficient and time-dependent data are necessary to clearly demonstrate a superradiant enhancement of the spontaneous radiative decay rate.

J. C. MacGillivray, Michael S. Feld