Abstract
In 1954 R. H. Dicke pointed out that the spontaneous emission rate of an assembly of atoms would be much greater than that of an isolated atom.1 This effect, called superradiance, is due to cooperation of the atoms coupled via the common radiation field. In his treatment Dicke distinguished two regimes, characterized by whether the atoms are confined to a region small or large compared to the wavelength of the emitted radiation. In the former case the theoretical formulation is straightforward, and the predictions have been confirmed in the microwave region.2 For extended samples, as occur in the optical range, the theory is more complex, since propagation effects must be taken into account. Several theoretical treatments have been given, 3–8 but as yet there is no general agreement as to the details of the radiation process. Experimentally, a number of coherent optical effects closely related to the concepts used to treat superradiance had been observed. 9–15 In a recent paper16, the first observation of superradiant pulse evolution was reported in far-infrared transition of optically pumped HF gas, and an analysis was given. The present paper is a continuation and elaboration of that work.
Work supported in part by National Science Foundation and Research Corporation.
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References
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We are grateful to Bob Wenzel of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for providing plans for this laser.
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Note that this conclusion applies only to an inhomogeneously broadened system, where de-excitation of the levels is unimportant. The population decay associated with homogeneous broadening cannot be counteracted by high gain.
N. Tan-no, K. Kan-no, K. Yokoto and H. Inaba, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-9, 423 (1973).
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Herman, I.P., MacGillivray, J.C., Skribanowitz, N., Feld, M.S. (1974). Self-Induced Emission in Optically Pumped HF Gas: The Rise and Fall of the Superradiant State. In: Brewer, R.G., Mooradian, A. (eds) Laser Spectroscopy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-4517-6_28
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