Bosonic enhancement of spontaneous emission near an interface
arXiv:1011.4428 · doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2010.11.058
Abstract
We show how the spontaneous emission rate of an excited two-level atom placed in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of ground-state atoms is enhanced by bosonic stimulation. This stimulation depends on the overlap of the excited matter-wave packet with the macroscopically occupied condensate wave function, and provides a probe of the spatial coherence of the Bose gas. The effect can be used to amplify the distance-dependent decay rate of an excited atom near an interface.
6 pages, 3 figures