Forces and spatial ordering of driven atoms in a resonator in the regime of fluorescence suppression

Abstract

An atom in a high-Q cavity, which is coherently driven at the frequency of a cavity mode, exhibits strong suppression of fluorescence when the atomic decay rate exceeds the cavity linewidth. This effect is due to destructive interference of cavity and pump field, such that at the atomic position the total field intensity has a local minimum. For atomic ensembles the magnitude of the interference effect grows with atom number and depends on the relative atomic positions. It is strongest for a wavelength spaced array of atoms placed at the antinodes of the cavity mode. This suppresses fluorescence and enhanced collective scattering into the cavity mode. We analyze the mechanical forces in the regime where the interference condition is fulfilled. We show that the atomic pattern is mechanically stable whenever the driving frequency is red detuned with respect to the cavity frequency, irrespective of the atomic transition frequency. Hence atomic selforganization, as predicted in [6] can also occur in the parameter regime where superradiant scattering is suppressed by collective interference.