Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Recollections of an Independent Thinker
- A Look Back: Early Applications of Maximum Entropy Estimation to Quantum Statistical Mechanics
- The Jaynes–Cummings Revival
- The Jaynes–Cummings Model and the One-Atom-Maser
- The Jaynes–Cummings Model is Alive and Well
- Self-Consistent Radiation Reaction in Quantum Optics – Jaynes' Influence and a New Example in Cavity QED
- Enhancing the Index of Refraction in a Nonabsorbing Medium: Phaseonium Versus a Mixture of Two-Level Atoms
- Ed Jaynes' Steak Dinner Problem II
- Source Theory of Vacuum Field Effects
- The Natural Line Shape
- An Operational Approach to Schrödinger's Cat
- The Classical Limit of an Atom
- Mutual Radiation Reaction in Spontaneous Emission
- A Model of Neutron Star Dynamics
- The Kinematic Origin of Complex Wave Functions
- On Radar Target Identification
- On the Difference in Means
- Bayesian Analysis, Model Selection and Prediction
- Bayesian Numerical Analysis
- Quantum Statistical Inference
- Application of the Maximum Entropy Principle to Nonlinear Systems Far from Equilibrium
- Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
- A Backward Look to the Future
- Appendix: Vita and Bibliography of Edwin T. Jaynes
- Index
Enhancing the Index of Refraction in a Nonabsorbing Medium: Phaseonium Versus a Mixture of Two-Level Atoms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Recollections of an Independent Thinker
- A Look Back: Early Applications of Maximum Entropy Estimation to Quantum Statistical Mechanics
- The Jaynes–Cummings Revival
- The Jaynes–Cummings Model and the One-Atom-Maser
- The Jaynes–Cummings Model is Alive and Well
- Self-Consistent Radiation Reaction in Quantum Optics – Jaynes' Influence and a New Example in Cavity QED
- Enhancing the Index of Refraction in a Nonabsorbing Medium: Phaseonium Versus a Mixture of Two-Level Atoms
- Ed Jaynes' Steak Dinner Problem II
- Source Theory of Vacuum Field Effects
- The Natural Line Shape
- An Operational Approach to Schrödinger's Cat
- The Classical Limit of an Atom
- Mutual Radiation Reaction in Spontaneous Emission
- A Model of Neutron Star Dynamics
- The Kinematic Origin of Complex Wave Functions
- On Radar Target Identification
- On the Difference in Means
- Bayesian Analysis, Model Selection and Prediction
- Bayesian Numerical Analysis
- Quantum Statistical Inference
- Application of the Maximum Entropy Principle to Nonlinear Systems Far from Equilibrium
- Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
- A Backward Look to the Future
- Appendix: Vita and Bibliography of Edwin T. Jaynes
- Index
Summary
ABSTRACT. We investigate the possibility of enhancing the refractive properties in a nonabsorbing medium via two fundamentally different schemes. First there is the coherent preparation of three-level atoms where absorption is cancelled due to destructive interference while the refractivity is not hampered in the same way. There also is the possibility of cancelling absorption via a mixture of absorbing and emitting two-level atoms without the need of a coherent preparation. One drawback here, however, is high sensitivity to Doppler broadening, collisions and number fluctuations which makes this scheme practically infeasible.
Introduction
The various application of atomic coherence in laser physics and quantum optics has recently attracted considerable interest. It has been shown that atomic coherence can lead to absorption cancellation (Alzetta, et al., 1976; and Gray, et al., 1979) and quenching of spontaneous emission noise (Scully, 1985). More recently, the notion of noninversion lasing has received attention, and it was shown that atomic coherence leading to cancellation of absorption does not necessarily influence emission (Harris, 1989; Scully, et al., 1989; and Kocharovskaya and Khanin, 1988). There has been extensive research on many schemes that involve coherence between an upper or lower level laser doublet due to various means: microwave or Raman coherent coupling and spontaneous and incoherent pumping coupling just to name the most important.
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- Information
- Physics and ProbabilityEssays in Honor of Edwin T. Jaynes, pp. 73 - 80Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993