Dipole-dipole interaction and spontaneous decay of two atoms in an overdamped cavity
Flavia Seminara, Christopher Ross Leonardi · Physical Review A · 1990
Enhanced and inhibited spontaneous emission of two close atoms in an overdamped cavity is studied taking into account the dipole-dipole interaction between them. The system is described in the minimal-coupling scheme and the advantages of this choice for our problem are discussed. The dynamics is investigated using both quantum Langevin equations and Master equation techniques. This last approach allows one to describe the behavior of the atoms plus field system as a one-step process. The case in which both atoms are initially in their excited state and the mode is in its vacuum state is discussed in some detail. It is shown that, different from what occurs to two close atoms in free space, in an overdamped cavity dipolar interaction may modify the decay rate. In particular, we find that the two transitions the atomic system performs to reach its equilibrium configuration can have different rates, and that for a suitable choice of the detuning between the cavity mode and the unperturbed atomic frequency, one of the transitions occurs at an enhanced rate while the second is inhibited.