title: Observation of suppression of light scattering induced by dipole-dipole interactions in a cold-atom ensemble.
abstract: We study the emergence of collective scattering in the presence of dipole-dipole interactions when we illuminate a cold cloud of rubidium atoms with a near-resonant and weak intensity laser. The size of the atomic sample is comparable to the wavelength of light. When we gradually increase the number of atoms from 1 to ~450, we observe a broadening of the line, a small redshift and, consistently with these, a strong suppression of the scattered light with respect to the noninteracting atom case. We compare our data to numerical simulations of the optical response, which include the internal level structure of the atoms.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pellegrino
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bourgain
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jennewein
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: Y R P
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Sortais
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d'Optique, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, 2 Avenue Augustin Fresnel, 91127 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Browaeys
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruostekoski