Master equation for multilevel interference in a superradiant medium


Abstract in English

We derive a master equation for a superradiant medium which includes multilevel interference betwen the individual scatterers. The derivation relies on the Born-Markov approximation and implements the coarse graining formalism. The master equation fulfils the Lindblad form and contains terms describing single-atom multilevel interference, multi-atom interference between identical transitions, and multi-atom interference between different electronic transitions with parallel dipoles. This formalism is then applied to determine the excitation spectrum of two emitters using the parameters of the Hydrogen transitions 2S$_{1/2},to$4P$_{1/2}$ and 2S$_{1/2},to$4P$_{3/2}$, where the gap between the parallel dipoles is of the order of GHz. The distortion of the signal due to the interplay of multilevel and multi-emitter interference is analysed as a function of their distance. These results suggest that interference between parallel dipolar transition can significantly affect the spectroscopic properties of optically dense media.

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