Subradiance, i.e., the cooperative inhibition of spontaneous emission by destructive interatomic interference, can be realized in a cold atomic sample confined in a ring cavity and lightened by a two-frequency laser. The atoms, scattering the photons of the two laser fields into the cavity mode, recoil and change their momentum. Under proper conditions the atomic initial momentum state and the first two momentum recoil states form a three-level degenerate cascade. A stationary subradiant state is obtained after the scattered photons have left the cavity, leaving the atoms in a coherent superposition of the three collective momentum states. Both a semiclassical description of the process and the quantum subradiant state with its Wigner function are given. Antibunching, quantum correlations, and entanglement between the atomic modes of the subradiant state are demonstrated.

• Received 7 February 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.79.053622