Open AccessPhoton statistics in the cooperative spontaneous emission
Author(s) -
Vasily V. Temnov,
U. Woggon
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.005774
Subject(s) - physics , dephasing , photon , spontaneous emission , lasing threshold , atomic physics , resonance (particle physics) , photon antibunching , quantum optics , photon counting , optics , spectroscopy , laser , quantum mechanics
The second-order photon correlation function g((2))(tau) of photons emitted by a continuously pumped ensemble of N two-level systems coupled to a single-mode optical cavity well below the lasing threshold is investigated theoretically. A giant photon bunching is found for N < 10 emitters as the microscopic counterpart of spontaneous emission noise driven quasi-periodic superradiant pulse sequences in macroscopic systems of large numbers of emitters N >> 1. The phenomenon of giant photon bunching is preserved even for N = 2 and can be explained by the cooperative evolution via dark and bright two-atom states resulting into emission of superradiant photon pairs. The sensitivity of g((2)) to microscopic dephasing processes and resonance frequency detuning opens the door for photon bunching spectroscopy.