Spontaneous excitation of atoms near a phase conjugating mirror

It is shown by means of a semiclassical theory that the ground state of a localized collection of two-level atoms is unstable when the atomic sample is sufficiently close to a phase-conjugating mirror with high gain. Any small disturbance causes the atoms to become excited and begin fluorescing, the fluorescence taking the form of a sequence of superradiant pulses. Experiments to test this prediction seem possible.<
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