Redistribution of light frequency by multiple scattering in a resonant atomic vapor

Abstract

The propagation of light in a resonant atomic vapor can a priori be thought of as a multiple scattering process, in which each scattering event redistributes both the direction and the frequency of the photons. Particularly, the frequency redistribution may result in L\'evy flights of photons, directly affecting the transport properties of light in a resonant atomic vapor and turning this propagation into a superdiffusion process. Here, we report on a Monte Carlo simulation developed to study the evolution of the spectrum of the light in a resonant thermal vapor. We observe the gradual change of the spectrum and its convergence towards a regime of complete frequency redistribution as the number of scattering events increases. We also analyze the probability density function of the step length of photons between emissions and reabsorptions in the vapor, which governs the statistics of the light diffusion. We observe two different regimes in the light transport: superdiffusion when the vapor is excited near the line center and normal diffusion for excitation far from the line center. The regime of complete frequency redistribution is not reached for excitation far from resonance even after many absorption and reemission cycles due to correlations between emitted and absorbed frequencies.