English

A Unified Theory of Consequences of Spontaneous Emission in a $\Lambda$ System

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2009-11-11 v1

Abstract

In a Λ\Lambda system with two nearly degenerate ground states and one excited state in an atom or quantum dot, spontaneous radiative decay can lead to a range of phenomena, including electron-photon entanglement, spontaneously generated coherence, and two-pathway decay. We show that a treatment of the radiative decay as a quantum evolution of a single physical system composed of a three-level electron subsystem and photons leads to a range of consequences depending on the electron-photon interaction and the measurement. Different treatments of the emitted photon channel the electron-photon system into a variety of final states. The theory is not restricted to the three-level system.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0501474,
  title  = {A Unified Theory of Consequences of Spontaneous Emission in a $\Lambda$ System},
  author = {Sophia E. Economou and Ren-Bao Liu and L. J. Sham and D. G. Steel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0501474},
  year   = {2009}
}