Driven-dissipative phase separation in free-space atomic ensembles

The driven Dicke model, wherein an ensemble of atoms is driven by an external field and undergoes collective spontaneous emission due to coupling to a leaky cavity mode, is a paradigmatic example of a system exhibiting a driven-dissipative phase transition as a function of driving strength. Recently, a similar phenomenon was experimentally observed, not in a cavity setting, but rather in a free-space atomic ensemble. The reason why similar behavior should emerge in free space is not obvious, as the system interacts with a continuum of optical modes, which encodes light propagation effects. Here, we present and solve a simple model to explain the behavior of the free-space system, based on the one-dimensional Maxwell-Bloch equations. On one hand, we show that a free-space ensemble at a low optical depth can exhibit similar behavior as the cavity system, as spatial propagation effects are negligible. On the other hand, in the thermodynamic limit of large atom number, we show that certain observables such as the transmittance or the atomic excited population exhibit non-analytic behavior as a function of the driving intensity, reminiscent of a phase transition. However, a closer analysis reveals that the atomic properties are highly inhomogeneous in space, and based on this we argue that the free-space system does not undergo a phase transition but rather a “phase separation", roughly speaking, between saturated and unsaturated regions.