Longo Paolo, Keitel Christoph H, Evers Jörg
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 24;6:23628. doi: 10.1038/srep23628.
Cooperative phenomena arising due to the coupling of individual atoms via the radiation field are a cornerstone of modern quantum and optical physics. Recent experiments on x-ray quantum optics added a new twist to this line of research by exploiting superradiance in order to construct artificial quantum systems. However, so far, systematic approaches to deliberately design superradiance properties are lacking, impeding the desired implementation of more advanced quantum optical schemes. Here, we develop an analytical framework for the engineering of single-photon superradiance in extended media applicable across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and show how it can be used to tailor the properties of an artificial quantum system. This "reverse engineering" of superradiance not only provides an avenue towards non-linear and quantum mechanical phenomena at x-ray energies, but also leads to a unified view on and a better understanding of superradiance across different physical systems.
通过辐射场使单个原子耦合而产生的合作现象是现代量子和光学物理学的基石。最近关于X射线量子光学的实验通过利用超辐射来构建人工量子系统，为这一研究领域增添了新的亮点。然而，到目前为止，缺乏有意设计超辐射特性的系统方法，这阻碍了更先进的量子光学方案的理想实现。在这里，我们开发了一个适用于整个电磁频谱的扩展介质中单光子超辐射工程的分析框架，并展示了如何用它来定制人工量子系统的特性。这种超辐射的“逆向工程”不仅为X射线能量下的非线性和量子力学现象提供了一条途径，还导致了对不同物理系统中超辐射的统一观点和更好理解。
