Spatially dependent Lamb shift in a waveguide and its influence on the optical polyatomic cooperative effects

Abstract

We show that the Lamb shift can significantly affect the nature of the interatomic dipole-dipole interaction in structured reservoirs. The effect is explained by the difference in the Lamb shift for atoms located at different positions due to the inhomogeneity of the spatial structure of the modes of the electromagnetic field. Based on the model system involving two atoms in a waveguide, we demonstrate that this difference can be the same order as the natural linewidth of the atomic transition.