Theoretical study of early time superradiance for atom clouds and arrays

Abstract

We explore conditions for Dicke superradiance in a cloud of atoms by examining the Taylor series expansion of the photon emission rate at $t= 0$. By defining superradiance as an increasing photon emission rate for $t\sim 0$, we have calculated the conditions for superradiance for a variety of cases. We investigate superradiance as defined for photon emission into all angles as well as directional superradiance where the photon emission is only detected in a particular direction. Although all of the examples are for two level atoms that are fully inverted at $t=0$, we also give equations for partially inverted two level atoms and for fully inverted multilevel atoms. We give an algorithm for efficiently evaluating these equations for atom arrays and determine superradiance conditions for large atom number.