Phase advance of photons generated in stimulated emission relative to incident light

Stimulated emission is a process by which an incoming photon induces an excited atom to release a new photon. Current perspective believes that the new photon has an identical state as the incident one. However, it has contradictions with basic principles of quantum mechanics and an optical gain pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optik (Stuttgart) 2016-10, Vol.127 (20), p.8970-8975
Main Authors: Zhao, Zhenming, Kong, Mei, Xu, Yameng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atom optics
Laser theory
Optical amplifiers
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Summary:Stimulated emission is a process by which an incoming photon induces an excited atom to release a new photon. Current perspective believes that the new photon has an identical state as the incident one. However, it has contradictions with basic principles of quantum mechanics and an optical gain process. Analyzing gain processes by wave optics we discover that the stimulated emission superposition of the atomic ensemble is in phase with the incident wave, while the emission from a single atom is π/2 phase advanced. We show that conclusions consisting with laser gain processes can be obtained from this cognition.
ISSN:0030-4026
1618-1336
DOI:10.1016/j.ijleo.2016.06.076