Superfluorescence is treated in the Markovian master-equation approach. We show that we have to consider the complex coupling between any pair of atoms in order to reproduce superfluorescence signals with ringings as exhibited by experiments. We compare numerical results of our model with those obtained by a semiclassical approach of superfluorescence. The quantum treatment is found to be in agreement with the semiclassical approach only if the semiclassical tipping angle is taken equal to the square root of the number of radiating particles.

• Received 29 September 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.18.2196