Collective effects in the photon statistics of thermal atomic ensembles

Ribeiro, Sofia; Cutler, Thomas F.; Adams, Charles S.; Gardiner, Simon A.

doi:10.1103/physreva.104.013719

Collective effects in the photon statistics of thermal atomic ensembles

Ribeiro, Sofia; Cutler, Thomas F.; Adams, Charles S.; Gardiner, Simon A.

Authors

Sofia Ribeiro

Thomas Cutler thomas.cutler@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy

Professor Stuart Adams c.s.adams@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Simon Gardiner s.a.gardiner@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We investigate the collective scattering of coherent light from a thermal alkali-metal vapor with temperatures ranging from 350 to 450 K, corresponding to average atomic spacings between 0.7 λ and 0.1 λ. We develop a theoretical model treating the atomic ensemble as coherent, interacting, radiating dipoles. We show that the two-time second-order correlation function of a thermal ensemble can be described by an average of randomly positioned atomic pairs. Our model illustrates good qualitative agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, we show how fine-tuning of the experimental parameters may make it possible to explore several photon statistics regimes.

Citation

Ribeiro, S., Cutler, T. F., Adams, C. S., & Gardiner, S. A. (2021). Collective effects in the photon statistics of thermal atomic ensembles. Physical Review A, 104(1), Article 013719. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.104.013719

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 28, 2021
Online Publication Date	Jul 21, 2021
Publication Date	2021
Deposit Date	Sep 20, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Nov 1, 2021
Journal	Physical Review A
Print ISSN	2469-9926
Electronic ISSN	2469-9934
Publisher	American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	104
Issue	1
Article Number	013719
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.104.013719
Related Public URLs	https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.06600

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Copyright Statement
Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Society: Ribeiro, Sofia, Cutler, Thomas F., Adams, Charles S. & Gardiner, Simon A. (2021). Collective effects in the photon statistics of thermal atomic ensembles. Physical Review A 104(1): 013719. © 2021 by the American Physical Society. Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or part, without prior written permission from the American Physical Society.