Abstract
We investigate picosecond cooperative emission in an ensemble of rubidium atoms coherently excited by 100-fs laser pulses that are three-photon resonant to the - transition. The emitted 420-nm light is recorded by a streak camera with 2-ps resolution. The resultant pulse shape shows ringing typical for superradiance in extended sample. The pulse shape is measured as a function of input power and is compared to the solutions of Maxwell-Bloch equations. The observed superradiance, which is in the low-excitation regime, is found to be closely related to optical precursor behavior.
- Received 26 July 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.023424
©2012 American Physical Society