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arXiv · 2012.10222

Storage and release of subradiant excitations in a dense atomic cloud

Giovanni Ferioli·Antoine Glicenstein·Loic Henriet·Igor Ferrier-Barbut·Antoine Browaeys
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Abstract

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.

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Giovanni Ferioli, Antoine Glicenstein, Loic Henriet, Igor Ferrier-Barbut, Antoine Browaeys. 2020-12-18. Storage and release of subradiant excitations in a dense atomic cloud. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.11.021031

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