The dynamics of the fluorescence of dilute atomic ensembles excited by resonant pulsed radiation has been analyzed. It has been found that the motion of atoms in ensembles cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures in certain time intervals noticeably enhances subradiance rather than suppressing it. It has also been shown that the time dependence of the spontaneous decay rate can be nonmonotonic. The revealed features occur because the character of the slow decay of the atomic excitation is determined after a certain time mainly by the dynamics of subradiant two-atom quantum states, which are due to the resonant dipole–dipole interaction between atoms.
The dynamics of the fluorescence of dilute atomic ensembles excited by resonant pulsed radiation has been analyzed. It has been found that the motion of atoms in ensembles cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures in certain time intervals noticeably enhances subradiance rather than suppressing it. It has also been shown that the time dependence of the spontaneous decay rate can be nonmonotonic. The revealed features occur because the character of the slow decay of the atomic excitation is determined after a certain time mainly by the dynamics of subradiant two-atom quantum states, which are due to the resonant dipole–dipole interaction between atoms.
The dynamics of the fluorescence of dilute atomic ensembles excited by resonant pulsed radiation has been analyzed. It has been found that the motion of atoms in ensembles cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures in certain time intervals noticeably enhances subradiance rather than suppressing it. It has also been shown that the time dependence of the spontaneous decay rate can be nonmonotonic. The revealed features occur because the character of the slow decay of the atomic excitation is determined after a certain time mainly by the dynamics of subradiant two-atom quantum states, which are due to the resonant dipole–dipole interaction between atoms.
Abstract The fluorescence dynamics of optically dense but dilute atomic ensembles cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures and excited by resonant pulsed radiation is studied. Apart from total radiation intensity, the temporal variations of the spectral composition of fluorescence and its polarization, as well as the variation of the spatial distribution of excitation in the atomic ensemble, are analyzed. Based on this analysis, it is shown that the role of radiation trapping becomes smaller with time, and subradiance quantum states formed as a result of the resonant dipole–dipole interatomic interaction become the main factor determining the slow atomic excitation decay. The dependence of the subradiance form on the ensemble size is analyzed.
We report the investigation of the influence of atomic motion on the fluorescence dynamics of a dilute atomic ensemble driven by resonance pulse radiation. We show that even for sub-Doppler temperatures, the motion of atoms can significantly affect the nature of both superradiation and subradiation. We also demonstrate that, in the case of an ensemble of moving scatterers, it is possible to observe the nonmonotonic time dependence of the fluorescence rate. This leads to the fact that, in certain time intervals, increasing temperature causes not an decrease but an increase of the fluorescence intensity in the cone of coherent scattering. We analyze the role of the frequency diffusion of secondary radiation as a result of multiple light scattering in an optically dense medium. It is shown that spectrum broadening is the main factor which determines radiation trapping upon resonant excitation. Along with broadening, we found a shift and distortion of the shape of the spectrum over time. At later time, after the trapping stage, the dynamics is dominated by close pairs of atoms (dimers). The dynamics of the excited states of these dimers has been studied in detail. It is shown that the change in the lifetime of the given adiabatic term of the diatomic quasimolecule induced by the change in the interatomic distance as well as possible nonadiabatic transitions between sub- and superradiant states caused by atomic motion can lead not to the anticipated weakening of subradiation effect, but to its enhancement.
We numerically study the slow (subradiant) decay of the fluorescence of motionless atoms after a weak pulsed excitation. We show that, in the linear-optics regime and for an excitation detuned by several natural linewidths, the slow decay rate can be dominated by close pairs of atoms (dimers) forming superradiant and subradiant states. However, for large-enough resonant optical depth and at later time, the dynamics can also be dominated by radiation trapping due to classical multiple scattering. Signatures of this regime are found in the spatial distribution of excited atoms, which fulfills the prediction of the diffusion equation, in the polarization of the emitted light, which is depolarized at late time, and in the spectrum, which is mainly at the atomic resonance.
We study numerically the slow (subradiant) decay of the fluorescence of motionless atoms after a weak pulsed excitation. We show that, in the linear-optics regime and for an excitation detuned by several natural linewidths, the slow decay rate can be dominated by close pairs of atoms (dimers) forming superradiant and subradiant states. However, for a large-enough resonant optical depth and at later time, the dynamics is dominated by collective many-body effects. In this regime, we study the polarization and the spectrum of the emitted light, as well as the spatial distribution of excitation inside the sample, as a function of time during the decay dynamics. The behavior of these observables is consistent with what would be expected for radiation trapping of nearly resonant light. This finding sheds light on subradiance in dilute samples by providing an interpretation based on the light behavior of the system (multiple scattering) which is complementary to the more commonly used picture of the collective atomic Dicke state.
Since Dicke's seminal paper on coherence in spontaneous radiation by atomic ensembles, superradiance has been extensively studied. Subradiance, on the contrary, has remained elusive, mainly because subradiant states are weakly coupled to the environment and are very sensitive to nonradiative decoherence processes. Here, we report the experimental observation of subradiance in an extended and dilute cold-atom sample containing a large number of particles. We use a far detuned laser to avoid multiple scattering and observe the temporal decay after a sudden switch-off of the laser beam. After the fast decay of most of the fluorescence, we detect a very slow decay, with time constants as long as 100 times the natural lifetime of the excited state of individual atoms. This subradiant time constant scales linearly with the cooperativity parameter, corresponding to the on-resonance optical depth of the sample, and is independent of the laser detuning, as expected from a coupled-dipole model.