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Physical Review A

Time-resolved interplay between superradiant and subradiant states in superradiance lattices of Bose-Einstein condensates

Chengdong Mi, Khan Sadiq Nawaz, Liangchao Chen, Pengjun Wang, Han Cai, Da‐Wei Wang, Shi‐Yao Zhu, Jing Zhang

Published Oct 28, 2021• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The collective spontaneous emission of many atoms is significantly different from that of a single atom, depending on the geometry and the phase correlation of atomic ensembles. However, experimental observation of arbitrary superradiant and subradiant states of atoms remains challenging due to the difficulties in both preparation and detection of those states. Here we report the time-resolved observation of superradiance from a timed Dicke state in a momentum-space superradiance lattice of Bose-Einstein condensates, which enables an in situ measurement of the coherent lattice dynamics involving both superradiant and subradiant states. The long-lasting oscillation in the superradiant emission is contributed by population transport from the subradiant states in the superradiance lattice. This work paves the way to prepare and observe subradiant states, which has promising applications in quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.043326

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The collective spontaneous emission of many atoms is significantly different from that of a single atom, depending on the geometry and the phase correlation of atomic ensembles. However, experimental observation of arbitrary superradiant and subradiant states of atoms remains challenging due to the difficulties in both preparation and detection of those states. Here we report the time-resolved observation of superradiance from a timed Dicke state in a momentum-space superradiance lattice of Bose-Einstein condensates, which enables an in situ measurement of the coherent lattice dynamics involving both superradiant and subradiant states. The long-lasting oscillation in the superradiant emission is contributed by population transport from the subradiant states in the superradiance lattice. This work paves the way to prepare and observe subradiant states, which has promising applications in quantum information processing.
We report a time-resolved study of collective emission in dense ensembles of two-level atoms. We compare, on the same sample, the buildup of superradiance and subradiance from the ensemble when driven by a strong laser. This allows us to measure the dynamics of the population of superradiant and subradiant states as a function of time. In particular, we demonstrate the buildup in time of subradiant states through superradiant dynamics. This illustrates the dynamics of the many-body density matrix of superradiant ensembles of two-level atoms when departing from the ideal conditions of Dicke superradiance, in which symmetry forbids the population of subradiant states.
Due to its coherence properties and high optical depth, a Bose–Einstein condensate [BEC] provides an ideal setting to investigate collective atom-light interactions. Superradiant light scattering [SLS] in a BEC is a fascinating example of such an interaction. It is an analogous process to Dicke superradiance, in which an electronically inverted sample decays collectively, leading to the emission of one or more light pulses in a well-defined direction. Through time-resolved measurements of the superradiant light pulses emitted by an end-pumped BEC, we study the close connection of SLS with Dicke superradiance. A 1D model of the system yields good agreement with the experimental data and shows that the dynamics result from the structures that build up in the light and matter-wave fields along the BEC. This paves the way for exploiting the atom–photon correlations generated by the superradiance.
When multiple quantum emitters couple to a common electromagnetic environment, interference in their collective radiative dynamics gives rise to superradiance and subradiance. In regimes where coherent interactions and collective dissipation compete, the microscopic many-body dynamics and quantum correlations among the emitters that underlie superradiance and subradiance are theoretically challenging and remain experimentally elusive, even though collective emission has been observed in many physical systems. Here, we realize a superconducting qubit array coupled to a common microwave waveguide that mediates collective dissipation, with simultaneous access to coherent interactions and microscopic measurements of many-body dynamics. Engineered qubit-waveguide couplings with tunable amplitude and phase enable control of collective interference and the resulting super- and subradiant states. Leveraging site-resolved control and readout, we directly observe the microscopic decay dynamics of multi-qubit states across different excitation manifolds and track the evolution of populations and tunable quantum correlations. We reveal collective decay in regimes beyond the ideal Dicke model, where strong qubit-qubit interactions stabilize superradiance and subradiance against local dephasing and reshape decay pathways through spatially and spectrally structured many-body eigenstates. Our results establish a flexible platform for exploring collective phenomena in many-body quantum optics and driven-dissipative approaches to robust quantum information processing.
We measure the superradiant emission in a one-dimensional (1D) superradiance lattice (SL) in ultracold atoms. Resonantly excited to a superradiant state, the atoms are further coupled to other collectively excited states, which form a 1D SL. The directional emission of one of the superradiant excited states in the 1D SL is measured. The emission spectra depend on the band structure, which can be controlled by the frequency and intensity of the coupling laser fields. This work provides a platform for investigating the collective Lamb shift of resonantly excited superradiant states in Bose-Einstein condensates and paves the way for realizing higher dimensional superradiance lattices.
We discuss the evolution of the quantum state of an ensemble of atoms that are coupled via a single propagating optical mode. We theoretically show that the quantum state of N atoms, which are initially prepared in the timed Dicke state, in the single excitation regime evolves through all the N-1 states that are subradiant with respect to the propagating mode. We predict this process to occur for any atom number and any atom-light coupling strength. These findings are supported by measurements performed with cold cesium atoms coupled to the evanescent field of an optical nanofiber. We experimentally observe the evolution of the state of the ensemble passing through the first two subradiant states, leading to sudden, temporary switch-offs of the optical power emitted into the nanofiber. Our results contribute to the fundamental understanding of collective atom-light interaction and apply to all physical systems, whose description involves timed Dicke states.
By preparing two distant emitters in entangled Dicke states via detection of a single photon, the subsequent spatiotemporal photon emission is investigated. Depending on the parity of the established quantum state, emission patterns for the second scattered photon are observed featuring spatial superradiance as well as subradiance. We employ ultrafast single-photon resolving cameras with high spatial resolution disclosing the spatiotemporal emission characteristics. By recording the first photon in one direction and the second photon in another, revealing the spatial two-photon cross-correlation function g(2)(r1,r2){g}^{(2)}({\mathbf{r}}_{1},{\mathbf{r}}_{2})g(2)(r1​,r2​), we characterize the collective spontaneous emission behavior of two ions in free space. We explain the observed contrast of g(2)(r1,r2){g}^{(2)}({\mathbf{r}}_{1},{\mathbf{r}}_{2})g(2)(r1​,r2​) considering independently derived experimental parameters. Our results show how the detection of a single photon can profoundly modify the collective spontaneous emission dynamics of an atomic ensemble.