Optical superradiance: new ideas and new experiments

Hans Morawitz

Anatolii V Andreev

An orderly account is given of the processes of coherent propagation, amplification, and generation of pulses in polyatomic resonant media. The characteristic features of the propagation of solitons in resonant media of finite length are considered. Comparisons are made of the exponential and lethargic amplification of pulses in resonant media. It is shown that an allowance for the reflection of the field from the boundaries of an active medium gives rise to a qualitatively different dependence of the parameters of the pulses on the reflection coefficients under superradiance and lasing conditions, which makes it possible to introduce a criterion to distinguish lasing from superradiance. An analysis is made of the characteristics of collective superradiance, which is a new case of coherent generation of pulses. Experimental and theoretical investigations of rf superradiance emitted by systems of nuclear spins are reviewed.

P. V. Zinov’ev, Nataliya B. Silaeva, Yu. E. Sheǐbut

Dawei Wang

Lou, Xinyu, L. Deng, E. W. Hagley +3 more

We present the first experimental evidence supporting the postulation that an optical-dipole potential in a condensate undergoing superradiant scattering modifies the structure factor of the system and significantly impacts the scattering. Several consequences of this new detuning-dependent mechanism are discussed and verified experimentally. Our experiments indicate that whenever the generation and propagation growth of a new field are significant, the dynamic response of the condensate can have a profound impact on the scattering process.

Kyungwon An, James R Harries, Susumu Kuma