Coherent flash of light emitted by a cold atomic cloud
Atomic Physics
2015-05-27 v1 Optics
Abstract
When a resonant laser sent on an optically thick cold atomic cloud is abruptly switched off, a coherent flash of light is emitted in the forward direction. This transient phenomenon is observed due to the highly resonant character of the atomic scatterers. We analyze quantitatively its spatio-temporal properties and show very good agreement with theoretical predictions. Based on complementary experiments, the phase of the coherent field is reconstructed without interferometric tools.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1103.6098,
title = {Coherent flash of light emitted by a cold atomic cloud},
author = {Maryvonne Chalony and Romain Pierrat and Dominique Delande and David Wilkowski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.6098},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett