Umklapp Superradiance from a Collisionless Quantum Degenerate Fermi Gas

Abstract

The quantum dynamics of the electromagnetic light mode of an optical cavity filled with a coherently driven Fermi gas of ultracold atoms strongly depends on geometry of the Fermi surface. Superradiant light generation and self-organization of the atoms can be achieved at low pumping threshold due to resonant atom-photon Umklapp processes, where the fermions are scattered from one side of the Fermi surface to the other by exchanging photon momenta. The cavity spectrum exhibits sidebands, that, despite strong atom-light coupling and cavity decay, retain narrow linewidth, due to absorptionless transparency windows outside the atomic particle-hole continuum and the suppression of inhomogeneous broadening and thermal fluctuations in the collisionless Fermi gas.