Theory Seminar: Spontaneous symmetry breaking in nonlinear superradiance
Nikolai Klimkin
Max Born Institute Berlin
Theory Seminar, at the Seminar Room
Thursday, July 23, 15:00 CET
In conventional superradiance, atomic ensembles emit light within a fraction of their usual lifetime. The quantum interference of their emission amplitudes causes their contributions to line up with each other, giving rise to a rapid burst of super-bunched photon emission.
In my work, I consider a seemingly trivial modification of the same problem by simulating an ensemble of atoms trapped in a strongly detuned photon cavity, while being excited with an continuous-wave classical laser which is also strongly off-resonant. In this new setup, every individual atom's emission becomes suppressed. The gradually occurring superradiant burst is only made possible when the atoms become entangled with their own virtual photonic excitations. These excitations are then amplified by the collective laser-pumped emission from the atoms, revealing the fluctuating cavity field at a macroscopic amplitude.