Intensity Correlations of a Cooperative System

Abstract

We suggest that the intensity correlation function could be an important tool in the study of atomic cooperative behavior because it contains predominantly components at 0, $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}4\ensuremath{\Omega}$ in the limit of large Rabi frequency ($2\ensuremath{\Omega}$) and large cooperation number. This is in contrast with the single-atom prediction where the intensity correlation function contains only frequency components at 0, $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2\ensuremath{\Omega}$. The master equation for the collective system is solved analytically in the secular approximation.