Superradiance and inhomogeneous broadening. I - Spontaneous emission by two slightly detuned sources. II - Spontaneous emission by many slightly detuned sources

A theory is developed for a system of decaying sources which are near each other and have different resonances. The state of the total system of sources and field is shown to resist quantization, and detuning is found to result in nonconservation of the total quadratic spin of the sources. The Heisenberg equations for the operators are derived and a self-consistent set of second-order differential equations is developed describing the detuned system. In a second paper, a new quantum theory appropriate to the study of superradiant emission by an assembly of sources having different resonance frequencies is presented. The equations describing the time evolution of each source are derived and solved in the case of small detuning. In particular, the behavior of an inhomogeneously broadened system is analyzed and it is shown that, if a special condition is satisfied, inhomogeneous dephasing has negligible effects on superradiance.