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Physical Review A

Transient probe spectra in strongly driven atoms and their dependence on initial atomic conditions

Ning Lu, P. R. Berman, Arjun G. Yodh, Yue Bai, THOMAS W. MOSSBERG

Published Jun 1, 1986• 36 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We analyze the transient probe spectra that arise when a three-level atom is strongly driven by an optical field nearly resonant with one transition and is probed by a step-function weak field on a coupled transition. We pay particular attention to the effect of imbalances in the initial dressed-state populations on the observed spectra. As recently pointed out, such imbalances may be induced by sudden changes in the phase of the driving field. We find that transient probe spectra may differ dramatically for different initial atomic conditions. We follow the temporal relaxation of these novel probe spectra to their steady-state form. Our calculations do not include the effect of inhomogeneous broadening and are hence appropriate to studies of collimated atomic beams.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.33.3956

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We analyze the transient probe spectra that arise when a three-level atom is strongly driven by an optical field nearly resonant with one transition and is probed by a step-function weak field on a coupled transition. We pay particular attention to the effect of imbalances in the initial dressed-state populations on the observed spectra. As recently pointed out, such imbalances may be induced by sudden changes in the phase of the driving field. We find that transient probe spectra may differ dramatically for different initial atomic conditions. We follow the temporal relaxation of these novel probe spectra to their steady-state form. Our calculations do not include the effect of inhomogeneous broadening and are hence appropriate to studies of collimated atomic beams.
We analyze the transient probe spectra that arise when two-level atoms in an atomic beam are excited by a ``pump'' laser field and are probed by a step-function weak field on the same atomic transition. The temporal relaxation of the probe spectra to their steady-state values is found to depend critically on the initial atom--pump-field dressed-state populations and coherences. The transient spectra may be composed of absorption-emission structure that is totally absent in the steady-state limit. A simple physical interpretation of the spectra is given in terms of a conventional dressed-atom picture. In addition, we study the effects of collisions on transient probe spectra and investigate the transient buildup of several collision-induced features in the spectra.
We study the transient fluorescence spectra of two-level atoms driven by a strong optical field when the atoms are initially prepared in pure dressed states of the atom-field Hamiltonian. Spectra obtained here differ qualitatively from those observed in the steady state. In the case of steady-state resonant excitation, a three-peaked spectrum symmetric about the laser frequency is obtained; with pure-dressed-state preparation, the symmetry of the spectrum about the driving field is broken---one side peak is initially enhanced and the other is initially suppressed. Furthermore, the temporal oscillations of fluorescence intensity observed in previous calculations of transient fluorescence spectra appropriate to atoms prepared in a superposition of dressed states [J. H. Eberly et al., J. Phys. B 13, 217 (1980)] are suppressed when pure-dressed-state preparation is considered.
Time-dependent features of the fluorescence radiation from a strongly driven three-level atom in a Raman configuration are studied applying the Eberly-W\'odkiewicz counting-rate definition of the spectrum. Using our earlier formalism, where we assume that one or both of the driving fields are intense, we obtain analytical expressions for the time-dependent fluorescence spectra. We have also studied the influence on the transient spectrum of the initial preparation of the atom in three different dressed states.
Working with a beam of two-level--atom--like 174Yb^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb, we have measured the temporal evolution of strong-field resonance fluorescence spectra during square-pulse excitation. In the case of resonant excitation, it is found that driving-field phase shifts transform the normal three-peaked Mollow spectrum into a transient doublet spectrum asymmetric with respect to the atomic transition frequency. This qualitatively new type of spectrum provides fundamental insight into the connection between atomic dynamics and spectra, and results from a nearly perfect polarization of the dressed atom-field states.
Working with a beam of 174Yb^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb, we have studied the temporal development of Autler-Townes spectra following switchon of a strong, resonant, driving field. The transient fluorescence spectra observed are dramatically different from those found in the steady state. We find that either member of the Autler-Townes doublet can be eliminated by an appropriate shift in the phase of the driving field, and that the spectral peaks can display interesting temporal oscillations. The observed behavior is interpreted in terms of atomic dynamics and a polarization of the dressed atom-field states.
We investigate the steady-state spontaneous emission spectrum of a three-level atom driven by two coherent fields and the absorption spectrum of a weak probe passing through a collection of such driven atoms. We find that the fluorescence spectrum is strongly affected by the decay rates of all the levels involved in the atomic evolution and not just by the decay parameters of the specific transition whose emission spectrum is being monitored. In particular, the spectral components can acquire very different widths and peak heights relative to the case of the standard resonance fluorescence in which a two-level system is driven by a single near-resonant field. An external probe signal passing through the gas of three-level atoms may be absorbed or amplified, as in the standard two-level case, but under specific operating conditions, amplification (or absorption) occurs over the entire range where the atomic response is appreciable. In this case the existence of amplification or absorption is controlled solely by the population difference between two dressed states of the system. We provide numerical results in support of our arguments for arbitrary values of the atomic and field parameters and also develop an analytic description in the limit of strong driving fields that leads to explicit line-shape and linewidth formulas.