Classical versus quantum intensity-field correlations of scattered light from extended cold atomic clouds
N. Piovella · Physical Review A · 2022
We calculate the intensity-field correlations in the light scattered by $N$ cold atoms driven by a quasiresonant laser field. Fundamental differences occur if the atomic state is an entangled single-excitation state or a coherent factorized state. We provide analytic expressions for the two-time field and intensity correlation functions for the timed Dicke state and the quasi-Bloch state. The comparison with multiatom simulations shows good agreement between numerical and analytic solutions.