Dicke superradiance in ordered arrays of multilevel atoms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Masson, Stuart J., Covey, Jacob P., Will, Sebastian, Asenjo-Garcia, Ana
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Masson, Stuart J.
Covey, Jacob P.
Will, Sebastian
Asenjo-Garcia, Ana
author_facet Masson, Stuart J.
Covey, Jacob P.
Will, Sebastian
Asenjo-Garcia, Ana
contents In inverted atomic ensembles, photon-mediated interactions give rise to Dicke superradiance, a form of many-body decay that results in a rapid release of energy as a photon burst. While originally studied in pointlike ensembles, this phenomenon persists in extended ordered systems if the inter-particle distance is below a certain bound. Here, we investigate Dicke superradiance in a realistic experimental setting using ordered arrays of alkaline-earth(-like) atoms, such as strontium and ytterbium. Such atoms offer exciting new opportunities for light-matter interactions as their internal structure allows for trapping at short interatomic distances compared to their long-wavelength transitions, providing the potential for collectively enhanced dissipative interactions. Despite their intricate electronic structure, we show that two-dimensional arrays of these atomic species should exhibit many-body superradiance for achievable lattice constants. Moreover, superradiance effectively ``closes'' transitions, such that multilevel atoms become more two-level like. This occurs because the avalanchelike decay funnels the emission of most photons into the dominant transition, overcoming the single-atom decay ratios dictated by their fine structure and Zeeman branching. Our work represents an important step in harnessing alkaline-earth atoms as quantum optical sources and as platforms to explore many-body dissipative dynamics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_00093
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dicke superradiance in ordered arrays of multilevel atoms
Masson, Stuart J.
Covey, Jacob P.
Will, Sebastian
Asenjo-Garcia, Ana
Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
In inverted atomic ensembles, photon-mediated interactions give rise to Dicke superradiance, a form of many-body decay that results in a rapid release of energy as a photon burst. While originally studied in pointlike ensembles, this phenomenon persists in extended ordered systems if the inter-particle distance is below a certain bound. Here, we investigate Dicke superradiance in a realistic experimental setting using ordered arrays of alkaline-earth(-like) atoms, such as strontium and ytterbium. Such atoms offer exciting new opportunities for light-matter interactions as their internal structure allows for trapping at short interatomic distances compared to their long-wavelength transitions, providing the potential for collectively enhanced dissipative interactions. Despite their intricate electronic structure, we show that two-dimensional arrays of these atomic species should exhibit many-body superradiance for achievable lattice constants. Moreover, superradiance effectively ``closes'' transitions, such that multilevel atoms become more two-level like. This occurs because the avalanchelike decay funnels the emission of most photons into the dominant transition, overcoming the single-atom decay ratios dictated by their fine structure and Zeeman branching. Our work represents an important step in harnessing alkaline-earth atoms as quantum optical sources and as platforms to explore many-body dissipative dynamics.
title Dicke superradiance in ordered arrays of multilevel atoms
topic Quantum Physics
Atomic Physics
Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00093