Spontaneous decay of an atom excited in a dense and disordered atomic ensemble: quantum microscopic approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a single atom's spontaneous decay is affected by dense, disordered cold atomic clouds, focusing on decay dynamics, resonance shifts, and spectral distortions using a quantum microscopic approach.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantum microscopic analysis of spontaneous decay, including resonance shifts and spectral distortions, in dense disordered atomic ensembles.

Findings

Decay dynamics are significantly altered in dense clouds.

Resonance shifts depend on atomic density and disorder.

Spectral shapes of atomic transitions are distorted in dense environments.

Abstract

On the basis of general theoretical results developed previously in [I. M. Sokolov et al., J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 112, 246 (2011)], we analyze spontaneous decay of a single atom inside cold atomic clouds under conditions when the averaged interatomic separation is less or comparable with the wavelength of quasi resonant radiation. Beyond the decay dynamics we analyze shifts of resonance as well as distortion of the spectral shape of the atomic transition.