Coherent Spontaneous Emission of Multilevel Systems

Chunling Ding, Jiahua Li, Xiaoxue Yang

P. Schwendimann

Jiahua Li, Ai-Xi Chen, Ji-Bing Liu +1 more

I. R. Senitzky

It is shown that phase correlation exists between two consecutive spontaneous-emission processes of an atom—although the phase in each individual process is random—when the atom is initially in a coherent superposition of the top and bottom levels. This correlation persists even when the two emission processes are separated by a finite time interval.

P. L. Knight

G. S. Agarwal, Anil K. Patnaik

We show that radiative coupling between two multilevel atoms having near-degenerate states can produce new interference effects in spontaneous emission. We explicitly demonstrate this possibility by considering two identical V systems each having a pair of transition dipole matrix elements that are orthogonal to each other. We discuss in detail the origin of the new interference terms and their consequences. Such terms lead to the evolution of certain coherences and excitations that would not occur otherwise. The special choice of the orientation of the transition dipole matrix elements enables us to illustrate the significance of vacuum-induced coherence in multiatom multilevel systems. These coherences can be significant in energy transfer studies.