ABSTRACT
The influence of the dipole–dipole inter-atomic coupling on collective spontaneous emission has been considered by many authors using both semiclassical and quantum theories. Specific results have been obtained for simple cases of regular atomic systems with a finite number of atoms. For disordered systems it has been found that the dipole–dipole coupling causes relaxation of the polarization phase (the effect of de-phasing), thus suppressing super-radiance. The main object of this chapter will be a regular linear chain of identical two-level atoms fully excited in the initial moment of time. The chapter considers the super-radiance of a regular linear chain of atoms. Such a system is the limiting case of a multi-atomic system characterized by a small Fresnel number. The dipole–dipole inter-atomic coupling modifies the super-radiance dynamics only slightly, but has a strong effect on the shape and width of the spectrum.
