2024/08/20 by D. D. Yavuz, Yavuz, Deniz, David Gold +6 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Random lasers and scattering media
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2408.10975
openalex publication_date 2024/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a numerical study of the spatial coherence of light that is radiated from a dilute ensemble of atoms. The spatial coherence is established as a result of the collective (cooperative) coupling of the atoms to the light, and is qualitatively different from the coherence of a laser. Specifically, the coherence in collective spontaneous emission does not rely on population inversion and stimulated emission, is governed by anti-phasing of the dipoles (subradiance), and the key figure-of-merit for the observed coherence is N /(L/λ) . Here, N is the number of atoms in the ensemble, L is the size of the sample, and λ is the wavelength of the emitted light.