Collective effects in the photon statistics of thermal atomic ensembles

Abstract

We investigate the collective scattering of coherent light from a thermal alkali-metal vapor with temperatures ranging from 350 to 450 K, corresponding to average atomic spacings between $0.7\lambda$ and $0.1\lambda$. We develop a theoretical model treating the atomic ensemble as coherent, interacting, radiating dipoles. We show that the two-time second-order correlation function of a thermal ensemble can be described by an average of randomly positioned atomic pairs. Our model illustrates good agreement with the experimental results. Furthermore, we show how fine-tuning of the experimental parameters may make it possible to explore several photon statistics regimes.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures. Comments are welcomed

References in corpus (26)

• Entangled states and collective nonclassical effects in two-atom systems
• Single-Photon Generation from Stored Excitation in an Atomic Ensemble
• Photonic Maxwell's demon
• A room temperature single-photon source based on strongly interacting Rydberg atoms
• Quantum dot single photon sources with ultra-low multi-photon probability
• Shifts of a resonance line in a dense atomic sample
• Deterministic single-photon source from a single ion
• Coherent imaging of a pure phase object with classical incoherent light
• Photon statistics from a resonantly driven quantum dot
• Photon blockade with ground-state neutral atoms
• Nonclassical Interference Effects In The Radiation From Coherently Driven Uncorrelated Atoms
• Experimental study of the momentum correlation of a pseudo-thermal field in the photon counting regime
• Light from an ion crystal: bunching or antibunching?
• Single-photon interference due to motion in an atomic collective excitation
• Room temperature Rydberg Single Photon Source
• Exact electrodynamics versus standard optics for a slab of cold dense gas
• Electromagnetically induced absorption in a non-degenerate three-level ladder system
• Nano-structured alkali-metal vapor cells
• Observation of second-order temporal interference with thermal light: Interference beyond the coherence time
• Robustness of Dicke subradiance against thermal decoherence
• Transition from antibunching to bunching for two dipole-interacting atoms
• Far-field resonance fluorescence from a dipole-interacting laser-driven cold atomic gas
• Temporal intensity correlation of light scattered by a hot atomic vapor
• Generation of ideal thermal light in warm atomic vapor
• Controlling photon bunching and antibunching of two quantum emitters near a core-shell sphere
• Robust coherent transport of light in multi-level hot atomic vapors

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Weak localization of light in hot atomic vapors