Controlling light and matter with cooperative radiation

Susanne Yelin
syelin@g.harvard.edu
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269 and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

It is well known that spontaneous emission, typically assumed to be an independent process for each atom, can be correlated due to the interference of light emitted by different atoms. Cooperative radiation phenomena such as Dicke's superradiance has been explored in systems ranging from individual atoms to black holes. Recently, such cooperative radiation emerged as a promising method for manipulating systems ranging from unordered gases to ordered atomic arrays to two-dimensional semiconductor materials. I will discuss several theoretical ideas relating to super- and subradiance as well as potential applications of such effects.