We investigate theoretically the collective radiance characteristics of an atomic ensemble with the simultaneous decay of two atoms. We show that the two-atom decay can significantly suppress the steady-state collective radiance of the atoms, expanding the region of subradiance. In the steady-state subradiance regime, the system is in an entangled state, and the mean populations of the system in the excited state and ground state of the atoms are almost equal. The processes of the two-atom decay can be demonstrated by the population distribution of the system state on the Dicke ladder. Moreover, we show the correlation property of the emitted light from the atomic ensemble, where the correlation function is rewritten in the presence of the two-atom decay. We find that the emitted photons of steady state only show bunching in the case of two-atom decay. This work broadens the realm of collective radiance, with potential applications for quantum information processing.

• Received 17 May 2022
• Accepted 21 November 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.106.063701