Time evolution of a three-level atom in a laser pulse field

Mădălina Boca, Viorica Florescu

Hui Ma, Xijun Fan, Zhizhan Xu

We investigate numerically the propagation behaviors of an ultrashort laser pulse in a dense Λ-type three-level atomic medium by using the full Maxwell-Bloch equations without the slowly varying envelope approximation and the rotating-wave approximation. We find that with propagation distance and time increasing, variations of the Rabbi frequency and the population in a dense medium are quite different from those in a dilute medium even though Lorentz local field correction (LFC) is not considered. In a dilute medium, the populations occupied initially at the ground state are completely transferred into the lower excited-state with the increase of the propagation distance; however, in the dense medium, about a half is still kept on the ground state and the others are transferred into the lower excited-state. The population oscillation occurs at the input surface of a dense three-level medium due to carrier-wave Rabi oscillation, and the oscillating time with LFC is much longer than that without LFC; the time derivative of the electric field has stronger effects on the time evolution of the pulse in the dense medium than that in a dilute medium, which is clearly shown from the time evolution of the Rabi frequency; especially the oscillating amplitude with LFC in the trailing edge of the pulse is larger than that without LFC at the input surface of the three-level medium.

H. K. Avetissian, G. F. Mkrtchian

The multiphoton resonant excitation of three-level atoms in a strong laser field is investigated. The creation of various superposition states is shown. For implementation of these effects either the mean dipole moment in the excited states of an atom or, in three-level systems, a transition dipole moment between excited states (with energies close enough to each other) must be nonzero. The time evolution of the system is found using a nonperturbative resonant approach. Our calculations for the hydrogen atom suggest that by the appropriate optical pulses with moderate strong intensities one can achieve various superposition states by multiphoton resonant excitation.

Eugeny Korsunsky, Boris G. Matisov, Iu. V. Rozhdestvenskii

R. Netz, Thomas Feurer, G. Roberts +1 more

This work explores temporal and spatial aspects of coherent population transfer in a three-level atom through a synergic combination of experimental measurements and theoretical calculations. Experimental measurements exploit the broad bandwidth of a femtosecond laser pulse to initiate simultaneous excitation of the $5p{}^{2}{P}_{1/2}\ensuremath{\leftarrow}5s{}^{2}{S}_{1/2}$ and $5p{}^{2}{P}_{3/2}\ensuremath{\leftarrow}5s{}^{2}{S}_{1/2}$ components of the doublet line of atomic rubidium. By adjusting positive or negative frequency sweeps the pump pulse favors either one of the two transitions and eventually even decouples the two excited states. The population of the excited spin-orbit levels is monitored in real time by stimulated emission probing under conditions of different intensity, chirp, and pulse width of the driving field, giving detailed information on the coupling between the three levels and their interactions with the driving and probe fields at different points in spacetime. Both pump and probe pulses are carefully characterized after the interaction region by frequency-resolved optical gating. In order to interpret and understand the experimental results it is essential to consider the close relationship between pulse propagation and time evolution of the atomic system via the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. This analysis highlights the importance of spatial propagation of the light fields, as well as their temporal dependence, in understanding the dynamical population evolution, and quantitatively reproduces all aspects of the experimental measurements.