Janne Ruostekoski
Janne Ruostekoski

Quantum and nonlinear effects in transmission of light through planar arrays of atoms

Janne Ruostekoski
j.ruostekoski@lancaster.ac.uk
Lancaster University
We simulate the coupled quantum dynamics of closely-spaced atoms and light by solving the quantum many-body master equation. In the forward scattering of light from planar arrays and uniform slabs of cold atoms we identify quantum many-body effects that are robust to position fluctuations and strong dipole-dipole interactions. This is obtained by comparing the full quantum solution to a semiclassical model that ignores quantum fluctuations.
Patrizia Weiss
Patrizia Weiss

Influencing subradiance by thermal motion

Patrizia Weiss
patrizia.weiss@inphyni.cnrs.fr
Université Côte d'Azur, INPHYNI, CNRS, 1361 route des lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France

We experimentally and numerically study the subradiant decay in an ensemble of cold atoms as a function of the temperature. In the experiment we are recording the temporal switch-off dynamics of the light scattered by a cold-atom sample driven by a weak laser pulse (linear-optics regime). As subradiance is usually interpreted as an interference effect, it is not obvious that the finite temperature of the sample and for this the atomic motion don't introduce a source of dephasing with direct impact on the decay dynamics. We observe that subradiance is rather robust against an increase of the temperature, the measurements show only a slight decrease of the subradiant decay time when increasing the temperature up to several millikelvins, and in particular we measure subradiant decay rates that are much smaller than the Doppler broadening, which might be counter-intuitive. In the numerical simulations we can observe a complete breakdown of subradiance, which occurs at high temperature, when the Doppler broadening is larger than the natural decay rate of a single atom.