Power Broadening and Two-photon Correlations in Two-atom Resonance Fluorescence

Abstract

The cooperative resonance fluorescence radiation from two atoms separated by an arbitrary distance and driven by a coherent laser field is studied, taking into account the dipole-dipole near-field interaction. The steady-state total scattering intensity, as a function of laser frequency and field strength, differs considerably from the single-atom one for sufficiently small distances. Photon bunching and antibunching occur in the scattered radiation depending on the laser frequency. Practically a full antibunching effect is found, especially if the laser is tuned to resonance with a transition frequency of the two-atom system. This is in contrast to a recent result of Agarwal et al., who studied the two-atom system but neglected the frequency splitting due to the dipole-dipole near-field interaction.