Eur. Phys. J. D 2, 165-173 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050126

Semiclassical spin damping: Superradiance revisited

¹ Department of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Physics, Saint-Petersburg University, Saint-Petersburg, 198904 Russia
² Fachbereich Physik, Universität-Gesamthochschule Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a daniel@indy1.theo-phys.uni-essen.de

Received: 23 January 1998
Accepted: 14 March 1998
Published online: 15 May 1998

Abstract

A well known description of superradiance from pointlike collections of many atoms involves the dissipative motion of a large spin. The pertinent "superradiance master equation" allows for a formally exact solution which we subject to a semiclassical evaluation. The clue is a saddle-point approximation for an inverse Laplace transform. All previous approximate treatments, disparate as they may appear, are encompassed in our systematic formulation. A byproduct is a hitherto unknown rigorous relation between coherences and probabilities. Our results allow for generalizations to spin dynamics with chaos in the classical limit.