Quantum statistics of single-mode radiation emitted by superradiant Dicke states

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum statistical properties of radiation emitted by an atomic ensemble in superradiant Dicke states, revealing conditions for quantum features like photon-number squeezing and Fock state production over long times.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism to analyze quantum statistics of superradiant emission over long durations for large atomic ensembles, highlighting quantum effects at later times.

Findings

Radiation approximates a coherent state early on

Quantum effects like photon-number squeezing emerge later

Fock states can be generated under certain conditions

Abstract

We study the quantum statistics of single-mode radiation emitted by an atomic ensemble when the ensemble is initially prepared in a superradiant Dicke state. We show that while the radiation is well approximated by the Glauber coherent state at early times in the evolution, the emission can be truly quantum at later times. In particular, one can observe a large amount of photon-number squeezing in the emission under certain conditions; even a Fock state can be produced. We discuss the quantum statistics of the emission for various parameters, including different initial conditions for the atomic ensemble. To obtain these results, we have developed a formalism where we are able to calculate the quantum statistics of the emission over long time-scales even when the number of atoms in the ensemble is quite large.