Physical Review X (May 2021)

Storage and Release of Subradiant Excitations in a Dense Atomic Cloud

  • Giovanni Ferioli,
  • Antoine Glicenstein,
  • Loic Henriet,
  • Igor Ferrier-Barbut,
  • Antoine Browaeys

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021031
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 2
p. 021031

Abstract

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We report the observation of subradiance in dense ensembles of cold ^{87}Rb atoms operating near Dicke’s regime of a large number of atoms in a volume with dimensions smaller than the transition wavelength. We validate that the atom number is the only cooperativity parameter governing subradiance. We probe the dynamics in the many-body regime and support the picture that multiply excited subradiant states are built as a superposition of singly excited states that decay independently. Moreover, we implement an experimental procedure to release the excitation stored in the long-lived modes in a pulse of light. This technique is a first step towards the realization of tailored light storing based on subradiance.