Optical resonance shifts in the fluorescence of thermal and cold atomic gases

TL;DR

This paper investigates how optical resonance shifts in fluorescence differ between cold and thermal rubidium gases, revealing significant deviations from standard electrodynamics predictions through simulations and experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates that cold atomic gases exhibit unique resonance shifts not explained by traditional continuous medium models, supported by large-scale simulations and experimental data.

Findings

Resonance shifts in cold gases differ markedly from thermal gases.

Standard electrodynamics does not fully describe cold atomic ensemble responses.

Experimental and simulation results agree on the distinct behavior of cold gases.

Abstract

We show that the resonance shifts in the fluorescence of a cold gas of rubidium atoms substantially differ from those of thermal atomic ensembles that obey the standard continuous medium electrodynamics. The analysis is based on large-scale microscopic numerical simulations and experimental measurements of the resonance shifts in a steady-state response in light propagation.