Single Photon Superradiance and Subradiance as Collective Emission From Symmetric and Antisymmetric States

TL;DR

This paper explores the properties of superradiant and subradiant states in atomic ensembles, analyzing their entanglement and emission characteristics, and identifying conditions under which entanglement emerges during decay.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of symmetric and asymmetric states, their entanglement properties, and the conditions for entanglement emergence during atomic decay.

Findings

Superradiant states dominate collective emission with enhanced decay rates.

Subradiant states exhibit suppressed emission and are associated with asymmetric states.

Entanglement appears when the superradiant fraction drops below 1/N during decay.

Abstract

Recent works have shown that collective single photon spontaneous emission from an ensemble of $N$ resonant two-level atoms is a rich field of study. Superradiance describes emission from a completely symmetric state of $N$ atoms, with a single excited atom prepared with a given phase, for instance imprinted by an external laser. Instead, subradiance is associated with the emission from the remaining $N-1$ asymmetric states, with a collective decay rate less than the single-atom value. Here, we discuss the properties of the orthonormal basis of symmetric and asymmetric states and the entanglement properties of superradiant and subradiant states. On the one hand, by separating the symmetric superradiant state from the subradiant ones, we are able to determine the subradiant fraction induced in the system by the laser. On the other hand, we show that, as the external laser is switched off and the atomic excitation decays, entanglement in the atomic ensemble appears when the superradiant fraction falls below the threshold 1/N.