Eur. Phys. J. D 33, 113-121 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00009-9

Loss induced collective subradiant Dicke behaviour in a multiatom sample

INFM, MIUR and Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche, Università di Palermo, via Archirafi 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a messina@fisica.unipa.it

Received: 27 February 2004
Revised: 4 June 2004
Published online: 25 January 2005

Abstract

The exact dynamics of N two-level atoms coupled to a common electromagnetic bath and closely located inside a lossy cavity is reported. Stationary radiation trapping effects are found and very transparently interpreted in the context of our approach. We prove that initially injecting one excitation only in the N atoms-cavity system, loss mechanisms asymptotically drive the matter sample toward a long-lived collective subradiant Dicke state. The role played by the closeness of the N atoms with respect to such a cooperative behavior is brought to light and carefully discussed.