Cooperative scattering of light and atoms in ultracold atomic gases

Abstract

Superradiance and coherent atomic recoil lasing are two closely related phenomena, both resulting from the cooperative scattering of light by atoms. In ultracold atomic gases below the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation these processes take place with the simultaneous amplification of the atomic matter waves. We explore these phenomena by surveying some of the experimental and theoretical developments that have emerged in this field of study since the first observation of superradiant scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate in 1999 [1]. A 1D simulation of the dynamic, periodic spatial bunching of atoms into a density grating leading to the cooperative scattering of light into a mode backward propagating with respect to a pump laser field off-resonantly driving a two-level atomic transition. (a) A characteristic pulse of backscattered light is observed simultaneously with (b) the spatial bunching of atoms, as evident from the periodic convergence of the semiclassical trajectories of 500 atoms initially randomly distributed over an interval −10 < z < 10 in units of wavelength of the light

Cold bosons in optical lattices

“…In order to realize both, the storage of quantum information and the faithful long-distance communication, combined systems of atoms interacting with photons seem to be good candidates [477]. It would be interesting to consider the interaction of coherent electromagnetic fields with atoms located at the cites of a double-well lattice.…”

Classical dynamics of the optomechanical modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring cavity

“…The cooperative scattering of light and atoms in ultracold atomic systems, including experimental [15][16][17][18] and theoretical [19][20][21][22][23] studies of superradiance in BECs and coherent atom recoil lasing (CARL) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] has been the subject of a number of studies, see Ref. [32] for a brief review. The work most closely related to our analysis is Ref.…”

Classical and Quantum Collective Recoil Lasing: A Tutorial

“…The extension of the CARL model showed theoretically that SRyS from a BEC can be described in terms of the CARL instability involving ultracold delocalised atoms [26]. The SRyS experiments stimulated several other closely related theoretical studies [27][28][29][30][31].…”