Quantum statistics of oscillatory superfluorescence

Abstract

A generalized master equation previously proposed to describe oscillatory superfluorescence is numerically solved in the case of strong ringing. When the atomic system is fully excited, anomalous fluctuations and large atom-field correlations make the time evolution of the mean quantities (e.g., number of photons, total population inversion) quantitatively different from those found in the semiclassical treatment. In particular, because of fluctuations, the minima of the radiation output are notably larger than zero. On the contrary, when the atomic system exhibits a sizable initial macroscopic polarization (superradiance), we find a remarkable non-Markoffian effect consisting of a sizable delay in the radiation emission. However, in such conditions all quantum effects disappear, as in the case of pure superradiance.