Spontaneous decay-induced quantum dynamics in Rydberg-blockaded Λ-type atoms

Strongly Rydberg-blockaded two-level atoms form a Rydberg superatom which is excited only to a collective symmetrical Dicke state. However, emerging often in the alkali-earth atoms, spontaneous decay from the Rydberg state to an additional pooling state renders the ensemble no longer a closed superatom. Herein we present a computationally efficient model to characterize the interaction between a fully Rydberg-blockaded ensemble of N Λ-type three-level atoms and a strong probe light field in a coherent state. The model enables us to achieve a decomposition of the coupled dynamics in the strong field limit, which significantly reduces the complexity of computing the N-body system evolution and paves the way for practical analysis in experiments. A quasi-steady-state power spectrum with multiple sidebands is found in the scattered field. The relative heights of the sidebands show a time-dependence determined by the atomic relaxation, which illuminates potential applications of using the system in information transfer of quantum networks. With negligible dissipative flipping to the unsymmetrical states, the atomic relaxation time, indicating a linearly increasing pooling state fraction, is derived analytically as a function of the number of atoms.

Spontaneous decay of level from spectral theory point of view

In quantum field theory it is believed that the spontaneous decay of excited atomic or molecular level is due to the interaction with continuum of field modes. Besides, the atom makes a transition from upper level to lower one so that the probability to find the atom in the excited state tends to zero. In this paper it will be shown that the mathematical model in single-photon approximation may predict another behavior of this probability generally. Namely, the probability to find the atom in the excited state may tend to a nonzero constant so that the atom is not in the pure state finally. This effect is due to that the spectrum of the complete Hamiltonian is not purely absolutely continuous and has a discrete level outside the continuous part. Namely, we state that in the corresponding invariant subspace, determining the time evolution, the spectrum of the complete Hamiltonian when the field is considered in three dimensions may be not purely absolutely continuous and may have an eigenvalue. The appearance of eigenvalue has a threshold character. If the field is considered in two dimensions the spectrum always has an eigenvalue and the decay is absent.

KINETICS OF THE SPONTANEOUS DECAY IN COLD ATOMIC SYSTEMS

We discuss the spontaneous decay in a system of cold identical two-level atoms when, due to the strong dipole-dipole interaction, the collision-induced spontaneous decay plays the leading role in the process. We show that the time profile of the spontaneous transition is essentially non-exponential. Also, we argue that at a low initial temperature of the atomic system the spontaneous decay is accompanied by a strong heating caused by the inelastic atom-atom collisions. We show that the spontaneous emission spectrum is asymmetric. In addition, the width of the emission spectrum is a function of time. While atoms decay the emission spectrum becomes broader. The spectrum’s asymmetry and the atomic system’s heating have the same physical origin coming from the peculiarities of the atoms distribution function.

Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage in a Quantum Emitter Near to a Gold Nanoparticle

In the last three decades, stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) has been proven a robust and high-efficient technique for population transfer in a three-level quantum system and beyond that. As coupled quantum-plasmonic nanostructures are widely used in recent nanophotonics for the superior properties that the coupled structures have over their constituents, a series of studies have analyzed the influence of a spherical metallic nanoparticle, which is a basic plasmonic nanosystem, on coherent population transfer methods in nearby quantum systems. For several recent proposals, it is important to understand the behavior of STIRAP near metallic nanoparticles. Therefore, in this work we present numerical results on the influence of a spherical metallic nanoparticle to the population transfer in a Λ-type quantum system under conditions of STIRAP. For the study of the system’s dynamics, we use the density matrix approach for the quantum system, where the parameters for the electric field amplitudes and the spontaneous decay rates have been calculated using ab initio electromagnetic calculations for the plasmonic nanoparticle. We then present results for the evolution of the populations of the different levels of the quantum system as a function of different parameters, in the presence and the absence of the plasmonic nanoparticle. We find that the presence of the plasmonic nanoparticle and the polarization of the pump and Stokes fields with respect to the surface of the nanoparticle, affect the efficiency of the population transfer inside the three-level quantum system. For the right combination of the values of the free space spontaneous decay rates and the fields intensities, high efficiency population transfer is obtained in the quantum system near a plasmonic nanoparticle using the STIRAP process.