Intensity fluctuations in steady-state superradiance

Abstract

Alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms with ultranarrow optical transitions enable superradiance in steady state. The emitted light promises to have an unprecedented stability with a linewidth as narrow as a few millihertz. In order to evaluate the potential usefulness of this light source as an ultrastable oscillator in clock and precision metrology applications, it is crucial to understand the noise properties of this device. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the intensity fluctuations by means of Monte Carlo simulations and semiclassical approximations. We find that the light exhibits bunching below threshold, is to a good approximation coherent in the superradiant regime, and is chaotic above the second threshold.