Effects of interatomic interaction on cooperative relaxation of two-level atoms

We study effects of direct interatomic interaction on cooperative processes in atom-photon dynamics. Using a model of two-level atoms with Ising-type interaction as an example, it is demonstrated that interparticle interaction combined with atom-field coupling can introduce additional interatomic correlations acting as a phase synchronizing factor. For the case of weakly interacting atoms with J < h omega(0), where J is the interparticle coupling constant and omega(0) is the atomic frequency, dynamical regimes of cooperative relaxation of atoms are analyzed in the Born-Markov approximation both numerically and using the mean field approximation. We show that interparticle correlations induced by the direct interaction result in inhibition of incoherent spontaneous decay leading to the regime of collective pulse relaxation which differs from superradiance in nature. For superradiant transition, the synchronizing effect of interatomic interaction is found to manifest itself in enhancement of superradiance. When the interaction is strong and J > h omega(0), one-particle one-photon transitions are excluded and transition to the regime of multiphoton relaxation occurs. Using a simple model of two atoms in a high-Q single mode cavity we show that such transition is accompanied by Rabi oscillations involving many-atom multiphoton states. Dephasing effects of dipole-dipole interaction and solitonic mechanism of relaxation are discussed.