Coherent effects under suppressed spontaneous emission

An ensemble of resonance atoms is considered, which are doped into a medium with well developed polariton effect, when in the spectrum of polariton states there is a band gap. If an atom with a resonance frequency inside the polariton gap is placed into the medium, the atomic spontaneous emission is suppressed. However, a system of resonance atoms inside the polariton gap can radiate when their coherent interaction is sufficiently strong. Thus the suppression of spontaneous emission for a single atom can be overcome by a collective of atoms radiating coherently. Conditions when such collective effects can appear and their dynamics are analysed. Received 7 June 2000