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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Coherent optical transients in a three-level atomic system

Yifu Zhu

Published Oct 1, 1997• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We analyze the transient response induced by a resonant, weak probe laser in a three-level V-type system driven by a strong, resonant coupling laser. The Rabi oscillation of the probe transition contains two frequencies determined by the coupling laser, and the ratio of the two-frequency components can be controlled by a time delay between the probe and the coupling laser. In particular, when both lasers are turned on simultaneously, the optical nutation with the frequency approximately equal to the Rabi frequency of the coupling laser is dominant; when the probe laser is turned on well after the steady state is reached for the coupling transition, the Rabi oscillation of the probe transition still occurs, and the oscillatory frequency is approximately equal to half of the Rabi frequency of the coupling laser. When both the probe and the coupling lasers are strong, the mutual interaction of the two fields and the atomic system may revive the optical nutation with each other.

DOI
10.1364/josab.14.002596

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We analyze the transient response induced by a resonant, weak probe laser in a three-level V-type system driven by a strong, resonant coupling laser. The Rabi oscillation of the probe transition contains two frequencies determined by the coupling laser, and the ratio of the two-frequency components can be controlled by a time delay between the probe and the coupling laser. In particular, when both lasers are turned on simultaneously, the optical nutation with the frequency approximately equal to the Rabi frequency of the coupling laser is dominant; when the probe laser is turned on well after the steady state is reached for the coupling transition, the Rabi oscillation of the probe transition still occurs, and the oscillatory frequency is approximately equal to half of the Rabi frequency of the coupling laser. When both the probe and the coupling lasers are strong, the mutual interaction of the two fields and the atomic system may revive the optical nutation with each other.
We study transients in resonantly coupled three-level systems. Two of the levels are coupled by intense two-photon pumping, and the third one provides a probing level. Adiabatically eliminated levels appear in effective system parameters. Experimentally, this model is applicable, e.g., in resonantly enhanced parametric and harmonic generation in atomic vapors. A distinguishing feature in the system is the appearance of ac Stark shifts in the probe spectra when pumping at the two-photon resonance. The nutation signal is shown to give information on the effective two-photon Rabi frequency and on the decay rate of the dipole-forbidden two-photon coherence. Free-induction decay is strongly dominated by population-induced effects; Raman-like peaks introduced by Stark shifts may show large instantaneous gain. Gaussian pump pulses are investigated to investigate effects arising from the temporal sweeping of the two-photon Rabi flipping and the modulation of the Stark shifts. The results also provide relevant information on the gain dynamics of coherently pumped lasers.
We experimentally investigate the transient dynamics of two-level atoms driven by a bichromatic optical excitation field when the bichromatic field is configured to contain a strong resonant component and a weaker nonresonant perturber component. We concentrate on the experimental situation in which the two-level atoms are prepared in an eigenstate (dressed state) of the coupled atom-resonant field system prior to exposure to the perturber field. We experimentally demonstrate perturber-field-induced, optical nutation of the dressed-state populations. We show how nutation of the dressed-state populations manifests itself in the fluorescence signal of the transiently driven atoms. We observe that the detuning of the perturber field from transitions between the dressed states of the atom-resonant field system plays the same role in determining the character of the dressed-state optical nutation as the atom-field detuning in the case of the ordinary optical nutation of atomic populations. Our experiments demonstrate the utility of the dressed-atom picture in understanding the complex dynamics of bichromatically driven atoms in a variety of circumstances.
Theoretical studies have shown that the transient dynamics of an undamped two-level atom, driven by a bichromatic laser field consisting of a strong resonant pump and a moderate strength tunable perturber, are complex. Among the interesting results, it has been found that the strong field tends to stabilize the atom against the influence of the perturber field.1 Exceptions occur when the perturber is detuned from the strong field by the Rabi frequency of the pump or its subharmonics. In addition, it has been found that the atomic response depends strongly on the initial relative phase of the two excitation-field components.1,2 We have constructed an experimental apparatus to study the transient response of two-level like Yb atoms to bichromatic field excitations. The transient bichromatic laser field is generated by sending a dye laser beam double pass through an AOM driven by a bichromatic rf field. All the optical field parameters, amplitudes, frequencies, and phases, are controlled by corresponding rf field parameters.
A four-level inverted Y-type atomic system is subjected to three coherent laser fields simultaneously. The system has two closely spaced ground energy levels, one intermediate energy level and an uppermost energy level. Transition from the two ground levels to the intermediate level as well as from the intermediate level to the uppermost level are dipole allowed. Transition from the two ground energy levels to the uppermost level is dipole forbidden. A weak laser beam, known as the probe beam, acts between one of the ground levels and the intermediate level. A strong laser field, known as the control or pump field, couples the intermediate level with the uppermost level. A repump filed of intensity usually higher than the probe field acts between the other ground level and the intermediate level. The probe transmission through such a medium is investigated at different values of the control and repump Rabi frequencies under Doppler free condition as well as with thermal averaging. The nonradiative population transfer rates between the ground energy levels have been incorporated.
We theoretically study the coherent interaction of a tripod-type atomic system with three laser fields, i.e., one probe and two coupling, or two probe and one coupling field. Our analytical and numerical results show that, when all three fields are on two-photon resonance, in addition to the Rabi frequencies of the coupling fields, the probe group velocities also depend on the spontaneous decay rates and the initial population distribution. So we can manipulate the probe pulses to achieve controllable ultraslow group velocities by preparing different initial atomic states. With an incoherent pump field applied, a narrow transparent window accompanied by abnormal dispersion may occur in the probe absorption spectrum, which then allows us to switch a probe pulse from ultraslow to superluminal propagation.