Superradiance–Super Blasts of Light from Coherent Matter (Like Balls of Light?)

This really caught my attention. An article in Science Magazine, September 18th, 2009 that discusses how coherently organized atoms can spontaneously emit photons. The authors say how this discovery, dating back to 1954 by Robert Dicke, showed that when their atomic “antennas” are coherently aligned, all in the same direction,  then clumps of matter could starting giving off light. Basically, a group of atoms can act like a single atom and resonate at the frequency of perceptible light. This is know as superradiance or “anomalous radiance.”

And now there is a new discovery that the light can even be stronger than previously thought.  This new finding suggests that even if only one atom is excited, if the group of atoms are symmetrically aligned, it can trigger superradiance. This is known as “single-photon” superradiance because it arises from a single atom.