Physical Review A
Lasing without or with inversion in a closed four-level system
Yifu Zhu
Abstract
I show that a closed four-level system pumped by a single laser exhibits the following features: lasing without population inversion in any state basis, lasing with population inversion in the dressed-state basis, and lasing with population inversion in the bare-state basis. The system can also exhibit a large refractive index with either zero or negative absorption.