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Physical Review A

Amplification without inversion: The double-Λ scheme

Olga A. Kocharovskaya, Paul Mandel

Published Jul 1, 1990• 308 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the propagation of a bichromatic field in three-level and four-level media. In the case of a three-level medium, we consider the \ensuremath{\Lambda} configuration and demonstrate that if the upper level is not empty there is a critical value for the low-frequency coherence such that below this threshold and for intense fields, coherent bleaching occurs. This implies a sharp reduction of the field absorption and the fluorescence emission whereas above this threshold a parametric instability takes place. It corresponds to an amplification of the field that does not need a population inversion between the optical transitions. Finally we prove that the field alone cannot create a low-frequency coherence exceeding this threshold. Therefore we analyze the double-\ensuremath{\Lambda} configuration involving a four-level medium in which the upper and lower pairs of atomic levels have a low-frequency separation while optical transitions take place between the two pairs of states. An intense bichromatic field that is resonant with one upper state and the lower levels and a weak bichromatic field resonant with the other upper state and the same two lower states are sent into the medium. We analyze the limit in which the low-frequency coherence created between the lower pair of states has a relaxation time which is large. Then there will be population trapping in the lower states leading to coherent bleaching if there is no inversion between the upper levels but there will be amplification if there is inversion between the upper levels. In this way amplification at the optical transitions without population inversion between these states is realized.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.42.523

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We study the propagation of a bichromatic field in three-level and four-level media. In the case of a three-level medium, we consider the \ensuremath{\Lambda} configuration and demonstrate that if the upper level is not empty there is a critical value for the low-frequency coherence such that below this threshold and for intense fields, coherent bleaching occurs. This implies a sharp reduction of the field absorption and the fluorescence emission whereas above this threshold a parametric instability takes place. It corresponds to an amplification of the field that does not need a population inversion between the optical transitions. Finally we prove that the field alone cannot create a low-frequency coherence exceeding this threshold. Therefore we analyze the double-\ensuremath{\Lambda} configuration involving a four-level medium in which the upper and lower pairs of atomic levels have a low-frequency separation while optical transitions take place between the two pairs of states. An intense bichromatic field that is resonant with one upper state and the lower levels and a weak bichromatic field resonant with the other upper state and the same two lower states are sent into the medium. We analyze the limit in which the low-frequency coherence created between the lower pair of states has a relaxation time which is large. Then there will be population trapping in the lower states leading to coherent bleaching if there is no inversion between the upper levels but there will be amplification if there is inversion between the upper levels. In this way amplification at the optical transitions without population inversion between these states is realized.
We consider a three-level medium with low-frequency separation between the two upper levels. The medium interacts with an external field that induces a coherence between the two upper levels. We analyze the amplification condition for the probe monochromatic optical field in a general nonresonant case. We show that amplification without population inversion arises either at line center or at the sidebands, depending on the sign of the population difference between the upper sublevels. This amplification occurs in a limited range of the coherent pump intensity.
We have studied the fluorescent spectra arising from the interaction of a four-level atom with a strong bichromatic field and a weak signal field simultaneously. The atomic system consists of two upper excited states \ensuremath{\Vert}3〉 and \ensuremath{\Vert}4〉 and two lower states \ensuremath{\Vert}1〉 and \ensuremath{\Vert}2〉 and the two laser fields, whose frequency modes ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}$ and ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{b}$ are initially populated, operate between the states \ensuremath{\Vert}2〉\ensuremath{\leftrightarrows}\ensuremath{\Vert}4〉 and \ensuremath{\Vert}2〉\ensuremath{\leftrightarrows}\ensuremath{\Vert}3〉, respectively. Using the Green-function formalism and a model Hamiltonian, where all the free and interacting fields are quantized, we have studied the transitions \ensuremath{\Vert}4〉\ensuremath{\leftrightarrows}\ensuremath{\Vert}1〉 and \ensuremath{\Vert}3〉\ensuremath{\leftrightarrows}\ensuremath{\Vert}1〉 of the signal field in the limit of high photon densities of both laser fields. The expression of the spectral function for the \ensuremath{\Vert}1〉\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\Vert}4〉 transition describes stimulated one-photon and three-photon processes, respectively. The one-photon spectra near the frequency \ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\approxeq}${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{41}$ of the signal field consist of a central peak and two pairs of sidebands whose intensities take always positive and negative values indicating that attenuation and amplification (stimulated emission) of the signal field takes place at the frequencies in question, respectively. The spectral function for the three-photon process near the frequency \ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\approxeq}${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{41}$-2${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{a}$ describes two pairs of sidebands whose intensities are always negative implying that strong amplification of the signal field occurs. The computed one-photon and three-photon spectra are presented graphically for different values of Rabi frequencies and detunings of both laser fields, respectively. Then using a classical description of both laser fields, the spectral functions describing one-photon and three-photon processes are calculated and the derived results are compared with the corresponding ones when the fields are quantized. It is found that the results obtained when the fields are quantized and in the limit of high photon densities describe the classical as well as the quantum nature of the photons which is lost in the classical treatment.
In a two-level medium, the condition for amplification is population inversion. The simplest scheme in which inversionless amplification occurs is a three-level medium. It was shown recently that a trichromatic field can be amplified by a three-level medium without population inversion if the low-frequency (LF) coherence exceeds some critical value.1 The question that we address here is how to generalize the two-level amplification condition when one or both levels are split into a number of sublevels.
When an atomic system interacts with light, it can amplify the electromagnetic radiation when gain exceeds loss. This requires that transitions from the upper level to the lower level prevail over the transitions from the lower level to the upper level. If one deals with a two-level system, the only way to obtain amplification is to create a state of population inversion, i.e. the upper level must be more densely populated that the lower level. "Lasing without inversion" may be possible when part of the atoms are trapped, which removes them from the subspace of states with which the upper level can have transitions. This chapter determines to what extent population inversion is necessary to achieve amplification. Independently, amplification without inversion and lasing without inversion were predicted by Harris using a different type of atomic interference. The amplification threshold has a number of features that are reminiscent of the laser threshold.