Emission from an Excited Molecule in a Resonant Medium

William Rhodes

The nature of resonance emission of light, which appears as a mixture of (coherent) resonance scattering and (incoherent) resonance fluorescence, is considered. The basic conceptual elements which distinguish the scattering and fluorescence components for the linear excitation limit are developed in terms of a simple formulation whereby a molecule interacts with a coherent Lorentzian light pulse which increases exponentially with time for t<0 and is turned off at t = 0. These results together with the ideas, currently existing in the literature, that stochastic modulation of a molecule by its medium is essential for the appearance of fluorescence provide the basis for the further formulation of a theory which does not require the ad hoc introduction of a random potential. The theory developed considers the microscopic origins of manifest stochastic modulation effects in terms of a bath potential for the molecule–medium (bath) degrees of freedom. This potential, termed the sudden potential, is associated with the change in interaction with the medium that a molecule experiences upon intramolecular state transitions which are induced by external interactions (e.g., by light). Development of the reduced molecule–field density operator leads naturally to a separation of terms which describes scattering and (the propensity for) fluorescence. Critical to the theory is a four-time correlation function for the bath (sudden) potential. The difficulties inherent in defining absorption (spectrum) resonances and the corresponding distinctions between resonance and relaxed emission are discussed. Implications are considered for the further understanding of experimental results on molecular excitation dynamics in the gas phase and in supersonic jets. Sources of stochastic modulation other than material media are mentioned. In particular, the possibility is suggested of the pervasive existence of stochastic modulation through interaction of a molecule with the vacuum state of the radiation field. This raises questions concerning the fundamental relations between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.

Valery M. Genkin, Vladimir N. Genkin

Rostislav M. Arkhipov, A. V. Pakhomov

Specific properties of the radiation emitted by a spatially modulated resonance medium excited by an ultrashort light pulse propagating through the medium at a variable superluminal velocity are analyzed. In so doing, frequencies different from that of the resonance transition of the medium may appear in the emission spectrum. It is demonstrated that, in contrast to an earlier studied case of medium excitation at constant velocity, variation of the excitation velocity leads to generation of a spectral continuum, the boundaries of which are determined by the range of variation of the medium-excitation velocity.

Yu. A. Vdovin, Viktor Mikhaĭlovich Galit︠s︡kiĭ

Masahiro Ojima, Takashi Kushida, Shigeo Shionoya +2 more

Various optical spectra such as time-resolved luminescence spectra are studied for excitonic molecules in CuCl under two-photon resonance excitation by using picosecond and nanosecond frequency-tunable laser pulses. Two sharp emission lines observed under resonance excitation are ascribed to the radiative decay of “cold” excitonic molecules created directly at k ∼2 k 0 , while the broad emission band on the low energy side of the sharp line to the luminescence of “hot” molecules created through single excitons. The stimulated emission process gives a considerable influence on both the sharp luminescence lines and the hot molecule band, and further on two-photon resonant excitonic Raman lines as well. Discussions are made on the Bose condensation of the excitonic molecules and also on whether the emission under just-resonance excitation is due to Raman scattering or luminescence.

Tim Wogan