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Vacuum-induced interference in light scattering by multilevel atomic chains

Aleksei Konovalov1,2,*, Giovanna Morigi2,3,†, and Nicola Piovella4,‡

  • *Contact author: aleksei.konovalov@uibk.ac.at
  • †Contact author: giovanna.morigi@physik.uni-saarland.de
  • ‡Contact author: nicola.piovella@mi.infn.it
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 053710 – Published 9 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fbdc-8n74

Abstract

We investigate cooperative light scattering by an ordered chain of multilevel emitters, which possess two quasiresonant transitions with parallel dipole moments. Interference between dipole transitions induced by coupling with the vacuum gives rise to so called cross damping and cross shifts, that modify the incoherent and coherent dynamics and can be manifest in the spectroscopic properties of the emitted light. We determine the excitation spectrum when the emitters' chain is driven by an external laser in the limit in which the dipolar transitions can be described by harmonic oscillators and the scattering is coherent. We show that the interplay of multilevel interference and superradiance can give rise to measurable effects in chains of alkali-metal atoms.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 053710– Published 9 November, 2026
  • Received 28 July 2026
  • Accepted 27 October 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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