  The effect of collectivity on the loading of an atom laser via optical
pumping is discussed. In our model, atoms in a beam are laser-excited and
subsequently spontaneously decay into a trapping state. We consider the case of
sufficiently high particle density in the beam such that the spontaneous
emission is modified by the particle interaction. We show that the collective
effects lead to a better population of the trapping state over a wide range of
system parameters, and that the second order correlation function of the atoms
can be controlled by the applied laser field.
