Coherent Scattering of Near-Resonant Light by a Dense, Microscopic Cloud of Cold Two-Level Atoms: Experiment versus Theory

Abstract

We measure the coherent scattering of low-intensity, near-resonant light by a cloud of laser-cooled two-level rubidium atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light. We isolate a two-level atomic structure by applying a 300G magnetic field. We measure both the temporal and the steady-state coherent optical response of the cloud for various detunings of the laser and for atom numbers ranging from 5 to 100. We compare our results to a microscopic coupled-dipole model and to a multi-mode, paraxial Maxwell-Bloch model. In the low-intensity regime, both models are in excellent agreement, thus validating the Maxwell-Bloch model. Comparing to the data, the models are found in very good agreement for relatively low densities ($n/k^3\lesssim 0.1$), while significant deviations start to occur at higher density. This disagreement indicates that light scattering in dense, cold atomic ensembles is still not quantitatively understood, even in pristine experimental conditions.

3 figures; one Supplemental Material

References in corpus (32)

• A Fermi-degenerate three-dimensional optical lattice clock
• Cooperative resonances in light scattering from two-dimensional atomic arrays
• The cooperative Lamb shift in an atomic nanolayer
• Enhanced optical cross section via collective coupling of atomic dipoles in a 2D array
• Absence of Anderson localization of light in a random ensemble of point scatterers
• Observation of suppression of light scattering induced by dipole-dipole interactions in a cold atomic ensemble
• Topological Quantum Optics in Two-Dimensional Atomic Arrays
• Superradiance in a Large and Dilute Cloud of Cold Atoms in the Linear-Optics Regime
• Collective atomic scattering and motional effects in a dense coherent medium
• Observation of single-photon superradiance and the cooperative Lamb shift in an extended sample of cold atoms
• Shifts of a resonance line in a dense atomic sample
• Quantum field theory of cooperative atom response: Low light intensity
• Coherent scattering of near-resonant light by a Dense Microscopic Cold Atomic cloud
• Light interacting with atomic ensembles: collective, cooperative and mesoscopic effects
• Cooperative Ordering in Lattices of Interacting Two-Level Dipoles
• Synchronization of Interacting Quantum Dipoles
• Absorption imaging of a quasi 2D gas: a multiple scattering analysis
• Observation of a Cooperative Radiation Force in the Presence of Disorder
• Photon bubbles in ultra-cold matter
• Controlling dipole-dipole frequency shifts in a lattice-based optical atomic clock
• Collective resonance fluorescence in small and dense atom clouds: Comparison between theory and experiment
• Light scattering from dense cold atomic media
• Light propagation beyond the mean-field theory of standard optics
• Transmission of near-resonant light through a dense slab of cold atoms
• Weak localization of light by cold atoms: the impact of quantum internal structure
• Simulating quantum light propagation through atomic ensembles using matrix product states
• Polaritonic modes in a dense cloud of atoms
• Optimized geometries for future generation optical lattice clocks
• Generalized mean-field approach to simulate large dissipative spin ensembles with long range interactions
• Coherent flash of light emitted by a cold atomic cloud
• Observation of cooperative Mie scattering from an ultracold atomic cloud
• Far-field resonance fluorescence from a dipole-interacting laser-driven cold atomic gas

Cited by in corpus (34)

• Collective shift in resonant light scattering by a one-dimensional atomic chain
• Geometric control of collective spontaneous emission
• Maximum refractive index of an atomic medium
• Optical transmission of an atomic vapor in the mesoscopic regime
• Collective Excitation Dynamics of a Cold Atom Cloud
• Observation of collective decay dynamics of a single Rydberg superatom
• Near-resonant light scattering by a sub-wavelength ensemble of identical atoms
• Superradiance-Mediated Photon Storage for Broadband Quantum Memory
• Directional superradiance in a driven ultracold atomic gas in free-space
• Fast and efficient preparation of 1D chains and dense cold atomic clouds
• Coherent light propagation through cold atomic clouds beyond the independent scattering approximation
• Van der Waals dephasing for Dicke subradiance in cold atomic clouds
• Comparison of three approaches to light scattering by dilute cold atomic ensembles
• Photon induced atom recoil in collectively interacting planar arrays
• Optical-depth scaling of light scattering from a dense and cold atomic ${}^{87}$Rb gas
• Optical interpretation of linear-optics superradiance and subradiance
• Influence of atomic motion on the collective effects in dense and cold atomic ensembles
• Photon-mediated dipole-dipole interactions as a resource for quantum science and technology in cold atoms
• Renormalization group analysis of near-field induced dephasing of optical spin waves in an atomic medium
• Topological photon pumping in quantum optical systems
• Master equation for multilevel interference in a superradiant medium
• Effective two-level approximation of a multi-level system driven by coherent and incoherent fields
• Resonant Dipole-Dipole Interactions in Electromagnetically Induced Transparency
• Limits and possibilities of refractive index in atomic systems
• Resonant light scattering by a slab of ultracold atoms
• Atom recoil in collectively interacting dipoles using quantized vibrational states
• Resonant forward-scattered field in the high-saturation regime: Elastic and inelastic contributions
• Analytic solutions for the spatial character and coherence properties of light scattered from two dipole-coupled atoms
• Collective emission and selective radiance in atomic clouds and arrays coupled to a microring resonator
• Emission photon statistics in collectively interacting dipole atom arrays in the low-intensity limit
• Cooperative effects in dense cold atomic gases including magnetic dipole interactions
• Metalens formed by structured arrays of atomic emitters
• Temporal dynamics in the Bragg reflection of light by cold atoms: flash effect and superradiant decay
• Nanosecond-timescale development of Faraday rotation in an ultracold gas