https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00076-4
Simplified approach to double jumps for fluorescing dipole-dipole interacting atoms
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Corresponding author: a hegerf@theorie.physik.uni-geottingen.de
Received:
10
January
2006
Revised:
11
March
2006
Published online:
14
April
2006
A simplified scheme for the investigation of cooperative effects in the quantum jump statistics of small numbers of fluorescing atoms and ions in a trap is presented. It allows the analytic treatment of three dipole-dipole interacting four-level systems which model the relevant level scheme of Ba+ ions. For the latter, a huge rate of double and triple jumps was reported in a former experiment and the huge rate was attributed to the dipole-dipole interaction. Our theoretical results show that the effect of the dipole-dipole interaction on these rates is at most 5% and that for the parameter values of the experiment there is practically no effect. Consequently it seems that the dipole-dipole interaction can be ruled out as a possible explanation for the huge rates reported in the experiment.
PACS: 42.50.Ar – Photon statistics and coherence theory / 42.50.Ct – Quantum description of interaction of light and matter; related experiments / 42.50.Fx – Cooperative phenomena in quantum optical systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2006
