Suppression of spontaneous emission and superradiance over macroscopic distances in media with negative refraction

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.011804· OSTI ID:20650172

Kaestel, Juergen; Fleischhauer, Michael ^[1]

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1. Fachbereich Physik, Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern (Germany)

The possibility of negative optical path length in left-handed media (LHM) is shown to lead to complete suppression of spontaneous emission of an atom in front of a mirror with a layer of LHM. For the same reason two atoms put at the foci of a perfect lens formed by a parallel LHM slab [J. B. Pendry, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3966 (2000)] exhibit perfect subradiance and superradiance. It is shown that these effects occur over distances that can be orders of magnitude larger than the transition wavelength and are only limited by the propagation length within the free-space decay time of the atoms. Single- and two-atom decay rates are calculated from the Greens function of the electric field in the presence of a LHM and limitations as well as potential applications are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 20650172
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Journal Name: Physical Review. A Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 71; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
DECAY
DISTANCE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
GREEN FUNCTION
LAYERS
LENGTH
POTENTIALS
REFRACTION
SUPERRADIANCE