The emission of radiation from a spatially extended amplifying medium is shown to exhibit new coherence effects when the medium is modeled by inverted atoms which possess a degeneracy allowing Q(J) transitions. In particular, it is predicted that media of this type for which J=2 can emit leading pulses which are doubly peaked or asymmetric within both the regimes of superfluorescence and oscillating fluorescence. Dissipative processes can radically alter the character of the emission; an output consisting of two well-separated pulses appears feasible, but the precise behavior in the present model depends upon the magnitude of the field losses and the initiation statistics.

• Received 27 December 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.32.367