Atomic interaction effects in the superradiant light scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate

In this paper we consider two models which exhibit equilibrium BEC superradiance. They are related to two different types of superradiant scattering observed in recent experiments. The first one corresponds to the amplification of matter-waves due to Raman superradiant scattering from a cigar-shaped BE condensate, when the recoiled and the condensed atoms are in different internal states. The main mechanism is stimulated Raman scattering in two-level atoms, which occurs in a ...

We study superradiant scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate using a pump laser incident at variable angle and show the presence of asymmetrically populated scattering modes. Experimental data reveal that the direction of the pump laser plays a significant role in the formation of this asymmetry, result which is in good agreement with numerical simulations based on coupled Maxwell-Schr\"{o}dinger equations. Our study complements the gap of previous work in which the pump ...

We model the off-resonant superradiant Raman scattering of light from a cigar-shaped atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. Absorption images of transmitted light serve as a direct probe of long range coherence in the condensate. Our multimode theory is in good agreement with the time-dependent spatial features observed in recent experiments, and the inclusion of quantum fluctuations in the initial stages of the superradiant emission accounts well for shot-to-shot fluctuations.

We report on the observation of collective atomic recoil lasing and superradiant Rayleigh scattering with ultracold and Bose-Einstein condensed atoms in an optical ring cavity. Both phenomena are based on instabilities evoked by the collective interaction of light with cold atomic gases. This publication clarifies the link between the two effects. The observation of superradiant behavior with thermal clouds as hot as several tens of $\mu\textrm{K}$ proves that the phenomena a...

We theoretically study the superradiant gain and the direction of this coherent radiant for an array of Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice. We find that the density grating is formed to amplify the scattering light within the phase match condition. The scattering spectroscopy in the momentum space can provide a method for measuring the overlap of wavefunction between the neighboring sites, which is related to their inner-site and inter-site coherence.

We study experimentally superradiant Rayleigh scattering from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a new parameter regime where pump depletion and the exchange of photons between the endfire modes are important. Through experiments and simulations we show that collective atom light coupling leads to the self-organized formation of dynamic Bragg gratings within the sample. These gratings lead to an efficient back-scattering of pump photons and optical resonator structures withi...

The spatial and time evolutions of superradiant scattering are studied theoretically for a weak pump beam with different frequency components traveling along the long axis of an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate. Resulting from the analysis for mode competition between the different resonant channels and the local depletion of the spatial distribution in the superradiant Rayleigh scattering, a new method of getting a large number of high-order forward modes by resonant frequ...

We study superradiant scattering off Bose-Einstein condensates by solving the semiclassical Maxwell-Schroedinger equations describing the coupled dynamics of matter-wave and optical fields. Taking the spatial dependence of these fields along the condensate axis into account, we are able to reproduce and explain many of the characteristic features observed in the experiments of Inouye et al. [Science 285, 571 (1999)] and Schneble et al. [Science 300, 475 (2003)], such as the s...

We theoretically discuss several aspects of sequential superradiant scattering from atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Our treatment is based on the semiclassical description of the process in terms of the Maxwell-Schroedinger equations for the coupled matter-wave and optical fields. First, we investigate sequential scattering in the weak-pulse regime and work out the essential mechanisms responsible for bringing about the characteristic fan-shaped side-mode distribution patte...

We study experimentally superradiance in a Bose-Einstein condensate using a two-frequency pump beam. By controlling the frequency difference between the beam components, we measure the spectrum of the backward (energy-mismatched) superradiant atomic modes. In addition, we show that the populations of these modes display coherent time-dynamics. These results are compared to a semi-classical model based on coupled Schroedinger-Maxwell equations.