Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission
When a quantum system is put into an excited state, it will decay back to the ground state through a process termed spontaneous emission. It is generally assumed that spontaneous emissions between different individual emitters will not be coherent with each other; to produce coherent light, one woul...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Physical Society
2022-03-01
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| Series: | PRX Quantum |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.010338 |
| _version_ | 1818487848124284928 |
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| author | D. C. Gold P. Huft C. Young A. Safari T. G. Walker M. Saffman D. D. Yavuz |
| author_facet | D. C. Gold P. Huft C. Young A. Safari T. G. Walker M. Saffman D. D. Yavuz |
| author_sort | D. C. Gold |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When a quantum system is put into an excited state, it will decay back to the ground state through a process termed spontaneous emission. It is generally assumed that spontaneous emissions between different individual emitters will not be coherent with each other; to produce coherent light, one would need population inversion and stimulated emission. In this work, we show that an optically thin ensemble of 11 000 radiating atoms spontaneously organizes to produce spatially coherent light. The reason for this coherence is collective coupling of the individual emitters via Dicke superradiance and subradiance (as opposed to amplification through stimulated emission). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T16:43:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a349573b395a4dd89bfbeb289cdb5f98 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2691-3399 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T16:43:19Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PRX Quantum |
| spelling | doaj.art-a349573b395a4dd89bfbeb289cdb5f982022-12-22T01:41:09ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPRX Quantum2691-33992022-03-013101033810.1103/PRXQuantum.3.010338Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous EmissionD. C. GoldP. HuftC. YoungA. SafariT. G. WalkerM. SaffmanD. D. YavuzWhen a quantum system is put into an excited state, it will decay back to the ground state through a process termed spontaneous emission. It is generally assumed that spontaneous emissions between different individual emitters will not be coherent with each other; to produce coherent light, one would need population inversion and stimulated emission. In this work, we show that an optically thin ensemble of 11 000 radiating atoms spontaneously organizes to produce spatially coherent light. The reason for this coherence is collective coupling of the individual emitters via Dicke superradiance and subradiance (as opposed to amplification through stimulated emission).http://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.010338 |
| spellingShingle | D. C. Gold P. Huft C. Young A. Safari T. G. Walker M. Saffman D. D. Yavuz Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission PRX Quantum |
| title | Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission |
| title_full | Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission |
| title_fullStr | Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission |
| title_short | Spatial Coherence of Light in Collective Spontaneous Emission |
| title_sort | spatial coherence of light in collective spontaneous emission |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.010338 |
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