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arXiv:cond-mat/9612174 · Physical Review A

Spontaneous photon emission stimulated by two Bose-Einstein condensates

Craig M. Savage, Janne Ruostekoski, Daniel F. Walls

Published Sep 1, 1997• 8 citations
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Abstract

We show that the phase difference of two overlapping ground-state Bose-Einstein condensates can affect the optical spontaneous emission rate of excited atoms. Depending on the phase difference the atom-stimulated spontaneous emission rate can vary between zero and the rate corresponding to all the ground-state atoms in a single condensate. Besides giving control over spontaneous emission this provides an optical method for detecting the condensate phase difference. It differs from previous methods in that no light fields are applied. Instead the light is spontaneously emitted when excited atoms make a transition into either condensate.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.56.2046

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We show that the phase difference of two overlapping ground-state Bose-Einstein condensates can affect the optical spontaneous emission rate of excited atoms. Depending on the phase difference the atom-stimulated spontaneous emission rate can vary between zero and the rate corresponding to all the ground-state atoms in a single condensate. Besides giving control over spontaneous emission this provides an optical method for detecting the condensate phase difference. It differs from previous methods in that no light fields are applied. Instead the light is spontaneously emitted when excited atoms make a transition into either condensate.
We study the interaction of light with two Bose-Einstein condensates as an open quantum system. The two overlapping condensates occupy two different Zeeman sublevels and two driving light beams induce a coherent quantum tunneling between the condensates. We derive the master equation for the system. It is shown via stochastic simulations that the measurements of spontaneously scattered photons establish the relative phase between two Bose-Einstein condensates, even though the condensates are initially in pure number states. These measurements are nondestructive for the condensates, because only light is scattered and no atoms are removed from the system. Due to macroscopic quantum interference the detection rate of photons depends strongly on the relative phase between the condensates. This may provide a way to distinguish between initial number states and initial symmetry-breaking states of the condensates.
The atom - electromagnetic field interaction is studied in the Dicke model, wherein a single field mode is interacting with a collection of two level atoms at thermal equilibrium. It is found that in the superradiant phase of the system, wherein the Bose-Einstein condensation of photons takes place, the notion of photon as an elementary electromagnetic excitation ceases to exist. The phase and intensity excitations of the condensate are found to be the true excitations of electromagnetic field. It is found that in this phase, the atom interacts with these excitations in a distinct coherent transition process, apart from the known stimulated emission/absorption and spontaneous emission processes. In the coherent transition it is found that while the atomic state changes in course of the transition process, the state of electromagnetic field remains unaffected. It is found that the transition probability of such coherent transition process is macroscopically large compared to other stimulated emission/absorption and spontaneous emission processes.
We calculate the spectrum of the scattered light from quantum degenerate atomic gases obeying Bose-Einstein statistics. The atoms are assumed to occupy two ground states, which are optically coupled through a common excited state by two low-intensity off-resonant light beams. In the presence of a Bose condensate in both ground states, the atoms may exhibit light-induced oscillations between the two condensates analogous to the Josephson effect. The spectrum of the scattered light is calculated in the limit of a low oscillation frequency. In the spectrum we are able to observe qualitative features depending on the phase difference between the macroscopic wave functions of the two condensates. Thus, our optical scheme could possibly be used as an experimental realization of the spontaneous breakdown of the U(1) gauge symmetry in the Bose-Einstein condensation.
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We propose a light-scattering scheme to measure the relative phase of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates and its diffusion rate. The proposal relies on the existence of two independent condensates coupled to a common excited state. To this end, we consider a two-well ground-state potential together with excited-state trap wave functions that extend over the whole region. When the first trap is driven by a weak monochromatic laser field, the light scattered from the second trap has a nonzero mean-electric field amplitude with a phase shift proportional to the difference of the condensate phases. When both condensates are driven, the phases of the two laser fields can be adjusted to cancel the scattering completely by a quantum interference. The particular value of the laser phase difference that gives zero scattering determines the relative phase of the two condensates.