The metamorphosis in the emission angular profile from an inverted two-level atoms system

A rich variety of angular distributions in the cooperative emission from a sphere of inverted N two-level atoms are shown to result from the eigenstructure of the complex kernel of scalar photon theory exp(ik₀R)/(ik₀R). This angular distribution is sensitive both to the size of the sphere and to the instant of observation of the emission.     

Reply to: “Comment on: ‘Effects of including the counterrotating term and virtual photons on the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of a scalar photon collective emission theory’ [Phys. Lett. A 372 (2008) 2514]” [Phys. Lett. A 372 (2008) 5732]

We compute the emission amplitude for the collective emission from a sphere of identical atoms in the scalar photon theory for both the cases of the complex kernel (i.e. including virtual photons) and real kernel. We explicitly show that the single mode theory based on the real kernel neglects the effects of the different decay rates and frequency shifts associated with the eigenfunctions belonging to the same angular index but with different radial indices. We show that these effects modify, for k₀R?1, both the time dependence of the emission amplitude and its angular distribution, in clear contradiction to the assertions made by the Comment's authors.     

Reduction of quantum phase fluctuations in intermediate states

Recently we have shown that the reduction of the Carruthers-Nieto symmetric quantum phase fluctuation parameter (U) with respect to its coherent state value corresponds to an antibunched state, but the converse is not true. Consequently reduction of U is a stronger criterion of nonclassicality than the lowest order antibunching. Here we have studied the possibilities of reduction of U in intermediate states by using the Barnett-Pegg formalism. We have shown that the reduction of phase fluctuation parameter U can be seen in different intermediate states, such as binomial state, generalized binomial state, hypergeometric state, negative binomial state, and photon added coherent state. It is also shown that the depth of nonclassicality can be controlled by various parameters related to intermediate states. Further, we have provided specific examples of antibunched states, for which U is greater than its Poissonian state value.     

Photon distribution function in blinking fluorescence of individual molecules

A photon distribution function w_N(T) for blinking fluorescence with bright on- and dark off-intervals is derived. The function w_N(T) is expressed via few Poissonian functions each of which relates to corresponding exponential process in quantum dynamics of a given individual molecule. The distribution of photons is calculated for short, middle and long time intervals as compared to off-intervals. The distributions are much broader than Poissonian distribution and have rather complicated shape. If time resolution of an experiment does not permit us to see off-interval and, therefore, fluorescence looks like CW emission, the distribution of photons gives a signal about existence of hidden off- intervals in such CW fluorescence.     

Two-photon emission competing with cooperative and nonlinear processes

Stimulated non-degenerate two-photon emission from a pencil of lithium vapour is demonstrated on three decay cascades of the Li atom, namely accompanied with transitions from the 3s, 3d and 4s levels to the 2s level, upon pulsed two-photon excitation of the Li 4f and 4d levels. It competes with superfluorescence and parametric emission which show up at slightly shifted wavelengths. In the cascade via the 3d level, which is strongest under the experimental conditions, also two-photon Stokes scattering of the excitation light is identified.     

Sub-half-wavelength atom localization via bichromatic phase control of spontaneous emission

We show that the bichromatic phase control of the spontaneous emission spectrum leads to the sub-half-wavelength atom localization. We consider a three-level Λ-type atom interacting with a bichromatic coupling field and a bichromatic probe field with equal frequency difference. One component of the bichromatic coupling field is a standing-wave field with position dependent Rabi frequency. When the spontaneous emitted photons are detected, the atom is localized in either of the two half-wavelength regions with 50% probability by the variation of the difference between the relative phases of the two bichromatic fields.     

Quantum interference effect on spontaneous emission spectrum in a doubly driven M-type atom

An M-type atomic system with two closely spaced upper levels interacting with the same modes of the vacuum radiation field exhibits the interference effect between the spontaneous decay channels. The phenomenon of this decay-interference along with the dynamically induced quantum interference created in the system by two coherent fields can change significantly the spontaneous emission spectrum. Our results highlight large enhancement of ultranarrow spectral components within the spontaneous emission line shape in various conditions. We have shown the occurrence of two contradistinctive phenomena: compression of two spectral lines towards their mid-position and the spreading of two lines away from each other under different dynamic conditions. The phenomenon of suppression of spectral line and the quenching of spontaneous emission have also been focused.     

Analysis on generation schemes of Schrödinger cat-like states under experimental imperfections

An analysis and a comparison of two generation schemes of Schrödinger cat-like state including experimental imperfections are presented. Under practical conditions, a scheme using a squeezed vacuum and a photon subtraction will generate a cat-like state with its fidelity to the Schrödinger cat state F = 0.815 and value of its Wigner function at the origin of the phase space W(0,0) = −0.203, and then turned out to be more feasible than the scheme using squeezed single-photon state. The non-classicality of these cat-like states is governed only by non-classical photon number statistics. The criteria for ensuring W(0,0) < 0 are also presented in terms of imperfection parameter diagrams.     

1/N-Expansion for the Dicke model and the decoherence program

An analysis of the Dicke model, N two-level atoms interacting with a single radiation mode, is done using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation. The main aim of the paper is to show that, changing the quantization axis with respect to the common usage, it is possible to prove a general result either for N or the coupling constant going to infinity for the exact solution of the model. This completes the analysis, known in the current literature, with respect to the same model in the limit of N and volume going to infinity, keeping the density constant. For the latter the proper axis of quantization is given by the Hamiltonian of the two-level atoms and for the former the proper axis of quantization is defined by the interaction. The relevance of this result relies on the observation that a general measurement apparatus acts using electromagnetic interaction and so, one can state that the thermodynamic limit is enough to grant the appearance of classical effects. Indeed, recent experimental results give first evidence that superposition states disappear interacting with an electromagnetic field having a large number of photons.     

Controlling spontaneous emission in a driven M-type atom by low-frequency coherence

We have studied the spontaneous emission behaviour in a five-level M-type atom driven by two optical fields of high frequencies and a microwave field of low-frequency. In absence of non-orthogonal decaying pathways, due to microwave field induced low-frequency coherence, the present model produces the emission spectrum resembling that of a three-level system controlled by the effect of vacuum induced decay-interference. For particular sets of values of the Rabi frequencies of the resonant coherent fields, the system exhibits quantum interference induced switching effect. By using this model, we have shown that the phenomenon of narrowing can be induced in the emission peaks without any detuning and phase control of the coherent fields. With the increase in the value of the Rabi frequency of the microwave field, this feature will be accompanied by the peak-compression and -repulsion effect. When the coherent fields are far from resonance, the appearance of the single-photon and the two-photon peaks in the emission spectrum can be easily controlled by changing the value of the Rabi frequency of the microwave field. We have shown the appearance of multiple dark regions in the emission line shape for equal as well as unequal decay rates of two emission pathways. Other interesting phenomena like elimination, enhancement and suppression of spectral line are also explored in various resonant and non-resonant cases.     

Effects on squeezing and sub-poissonian of light in fourth harmonic generation up to first-order Hamiltonian interaction

The effects on squeezing and sub-poissonian of light in fourth harmonic generation (FHG) are investigated based on the fully quantum mechanically up to the first order Hamiltonian interaction in gt, where g is the coupling constant between the modes per second and t is the interaction time between the waves during the process in a nonlinear medium. FHG is a process in which an incident laser beam of the fundamental frequency ω interacts with a nonlinear medium to produce the harmonic frequency at 4ω. The coupled Heisenberg equations of motion involving real and imaginary parts of the quadrature operators are established. The occurrence of amplitude squeezing effects in both the quadratures of the radiation field in the fundamental mode is investigated and found to be dependent on the selective phase values of the field amplitude. The photon statistics of the pump mode in this process have also been investigated and found to be sub-poissonian in nature. It is found that there is no possibility to produce squeezed light in the harmonic mode up to first-order interaction in gt. Further, we have found the case up to second-order Hamiltonian interaction in gt that the normal squeezing in the harmonic mode is directly depends upon the fourth-order squeezing of the initial pump field. This gives a method of converting higher-order (fourth-order) squeezing into normal squeezing in the harmonic mode and vice versa.     

A proposal for Ramsey interferences when spontaneous emission can occur between two interaction zones

The possibility of observing Ramsey fringes in situations where the time separation between two interaction zones is larger than the lifetime is discussed. The spectral characteristics of emission exhibit interferences which are shown to be due to the fact that the spontaneous emission event can occur in two different zones and thus erasing any Welcher-Weg information.It is indeed a great honor for me to contribute an article on the occasion of H. Walther's 60th birthday     

Eigenvalues of collective emission in multi-slice slab configurations

We compute the eigenmodes of collective emission from multi-slice slab configurations, using the transfer matrix formalism. We elucidate within this formalism the phenomena of “Invisible Gaps” in multiple-slice configuration and of “Precocious Superradiance” in periodic structures previously observed in numerical solutions of Maxwell-Bloch equations.     

Photon-emission properties of quantum-dot-based single-photon sources under different excitations

The photon-emission efficiencies and photon indistinguishabilities of a single-photon source, which employs a cavity coupled with a quantum dot, are studied under above-band and resonant excitations. The results are obtained by solving master equations and by applying the quantum regression theorem. According to the study, the photon indistinguishability increases with the Purcell factor under resonant excitation, which is consistent with the increase in emission efficiency; however, these two figures of merit are inconsistent for the above-band excitation scheme. Moreover, the efficiencies, defined as the average photon number emitted in one excitation cycle, are almost the same for the two different excitation schemes, whereas the excitation power needed to reach that efficiency is much lower under resonant excitation than that for above-band excitation. These results will be helpful in improving the performances of the applications concerning indistinguishability and efficiency.     

Entangled Radiation through an Atomic Reservoir Controlled by Coherent Population Trapping

We show that it is possible to generate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen （EPR） entangled radiation using an atomic reservoir controlled by coherent population trapping. A beam of three-level atoms is initially prepared in nearcoherent population trapping （CPT） state and acts as a long-lived coherence-controlled reservoir. Four-wave mixing leads to amplification of cavity modes resonant with RabJ sidebands of the atomic dipole transitions. The cavity modes evolve Jnto an EPR state, whose degree of entanglement is controlled by the intensities and the frequencies of the driving fields. This scheme uses the long-lived CPT coherence and is robust against spontaneous emission of the atomic beam. At the same time, this scheme is implemented in a one-step procedure, not in a two-step procedure as was required in Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 （2007） 240401.     

Obtaining high refractive index with vanishing absorption via spontaneously generated coherence and incoherent pumping

A three-level ∧-model atomic system with incoherent pumping is proposed to achieve high refractive index without absorption. In this kind of model, two lower levels are near-degenerate levels. It is found that high refractive index accompanied by vanishing absorption can be always accomplished by adjusting some related parameters. Although probe field is very weak, the SGC effect is prominent in the presence of incoherent pumping.     

Formal equivalence between Tsallis and extended Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics

A formal correspondence between the q-distribution obtained from the Tsallis entropy and non-Maxwellian distributions obtained from the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) entropy is obtained. This formal correspondence is obtained by imposing an infinite number of constraints when one maximizes the BG entropy. Different from the approach of Tsallis, Prato and Plastino [C. Tsallis, D. Prato, A.R. Plastino, Astrophys. Space Sci., 290 (2004) 259-274], we relate the constraints to the central moments, providing a natural meaning to the q-parameter.     

Abnormal properties of spontaneous emission in a Kerr nonlinear blackbody

We reexamine the atomic spontaneous decay in a Kerr nonlinear blackbody by contrast with our previous paper [M. Yin, Z. Cheng, Phys. Rev. A 78 (2008) 063829]. In the process of deriving the atomic decay rate, we use the temperature-dependent velocity of photons to take the full nonlinearity of a KNB into account. It is found that below a transition temperature T_c, the atomic spontaneous emission in a KNB might be enhanced or inhibited compared with that in a normal blackbody whose interior is filled with a nonabsorbing linear medium. The physical origin of the enhancement and inhibition of spontaneous emission is also discussed.     

Six-Fold Degenerate Dark States in a Four-Level Atomic System

With all driving fields on Raman resonance, a tripod-type atomic system quickly evolves into a dark state decoupled from the lossy excited level. The dark state depends strongly on field Rabi frequencies, spontaneous decay rates, and the initial atomic population in a complicated way. Analytical results reveal that it is a sixfold degenerate dark state with its three components superposed both coherently and incoherently due to population redistribution from spontaneous emission.     

Entanglement dynamics and quasiprobability distribution for the degenerate Raman process

In this paper, we consider the model which consists of a degenerate Raman process involving two degenerate Rydberg energy levels of an atom interacting with a single-mode cavity field. The influence of the atomic coherence on the von Neumann entropy of the atom and the atomic inversion is investigated. It is shown that the atomic coherence decreases the amount of atom-field entanglement. It is also found that the collapse and revival times are independent of the atomic coherence, while the amplitude of the revivals is sensitive to this coherence. Moreover, the Q function and the entropy squeezing of the field are examined. Some new conclusions can be obtained.