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Physical Review A

Dispersion profiles of the absorptive response of a two-level system interacting with two intense fields

Harry Friedmann, A. D. Wilson‐Gordon

Published Aug 1, 1987• 65 citations
Publisher

Abstract

When a two-level system interacts resonantly with a saturating pump laser, the absorption profile of a probe wave in the Rabi sidebands resembles two separate dispersion profiles. At sufficiently high probe intensity this effect is accompanied by a dispersive profile in the pump-wave absorption, considered as a function of the probe-wave frequency, and also by a dip in the population of the upper state of the two-level system. The relative stabilization of the ground state is interpreted in terms of two-laser-photon processes where absorption of a pump (probe) photon is followed by stimulated emission of a probe (pump) photon. The dispersive absorption profile is attributed to the competition between three- and four-photon scattering processes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.36.1333

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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Feb 14, 1996•2 citations
When a two-level system interacts resonantly with a saturating pump laser, the absorption profile of a probe wave in the Rabi sidebands resembles two separate dispersion profiles. At sufficiently high probe intensity this effect is accompanied by a dispersive profile in the pump-wave absorption, considered as a function of the probe-wave frequency, and also by a dip in the population of the upper state of the two-level system. The relative stabilization of the ground state is interpreted in terms of two-laser-photon processes where absorption of a pump (probe) photon is followed by stimulated emission of a probe (pump) photon. The dispersive absorption profile is attributed to the competition between three- and four-photon scattering processes.
We calculate the absorption spectrum of a weak probe interacting with a \ensuremath{\Lambda}-shaped three-level system driven by a single pump. We find that there are four types of terms that contribute to the probe absorption: population-difference and two-photon coherence terms which derive solely from interaction with the pump (dc terms) and population-difference and two-photon coherence terms that pulsate at the pump-probe frequency offset. We find that the main features of the probe spectrum derive from the pulsating terms whereas the dc terms either interfere destructively with each other or with the pulsating terms. This is a clear extension to the three-level system of the concept of light amplification by coherence. We calculate the spectrum for three cases: (i) a degenerate population-trapped system, (ii) a degenerate system in which both transitions are population inverted, and (iii) a nondegenerate population-trapped system. The results of case (i) are similar to those for the two-level system but the population-trapped system has the advantage of avoiding pump absorption. We show that the Rabi frequency of the nonabsorbed pump can be found by determining the probe frequencies at which probe nonabsorption occurs. In (ii), the results are compared with the case where two pumps interact resonantly with a nondegenerate system. In (iii), we find that the populations in the lower states behave dispersively as a function of the pump detuning. For Rabi frequencies that are small compared to the separation between the lower levels, the lower level nearer to resonance is less populated than the other level. However, at higher Rabi frequencies, the situation is reversed. The probe spectrum contains two absorption peaks when the pump Rabi frequency is small and two emission peaks when it is large.
Two-photon transitions have provided the basis for numerous useful nonlinear interactions with radiation. In this paper we calculate the absorption and coupling coefficients for one-, two-, and three-wave mixing in two-photon homogeneously broadened media. The resulting field equations form the basis for understanding saturation spectroscopy, phase conjugation,1 and single-mode instabilities2 in lasers and optical bistability in two-photon media. We assume that the wave frequencies are not resonant with any intermediate state j and that the probe and conjugate waves cannot saturate the two-photon transition. This allows us to use the two-photon two-level model and to transfer much of our knowledge of the one-photon two-level systems to the two-photon case. Two major differences occur between the two models. First, dynamic Stark shifts of the active levels play an important role in generating asymmetric spectra and nonzero dispersion (≃ω s T1) at line center. Second, high pump intensities do not bleach the absorption coefficient at the Rabi sidebands.
Studies the competition between absorption and stimulated emission induced by two laser fields at low intensities interacting on a two-photon resonance with a three-level atom. The induced spectrum into the ground state consists of a peak whose height and asymmetry depend strongly on the detuning. The spectra arising from the emission of a laser photon by the excited state consists of two peaks describing stimulated emission and induced absorption, respectively, where the former dominates the latter for small values of the Rabi frequencies but for higher ones, they cancel each other out.
Pump-probe interactions underlie the physics of four-wave and other wave-mixing effects. We present analytic formulas for probe response in a special category of pump-probe experiments. We consider a two-level system excited by two distinct fields, the stronger field with fixed frequency and the weaker with a tunable frequency. We focus attention on the spectral regions near the Rabi sidebands of the strong field and its various subharmonics. We consider times sufficiently short that relaxation effects can be ignored, but sufficiently long to encompass many cycles of population oscillation between the ground and excited states. Because there is no damping, both fields are in this sense strong, and we report here the time average of the response. Our results are obtained by making a suitable second-order rotating wave approximation and are shown to involve the initial phase relation between the two fields as well as the initial angles of orientation of the two-level system's Bloch vector. Depending on these initial phase and orientation angles, the absorption line shape may be either positive or negative and either symmetric or antisymmetric.
The possibility of obtaining strong negative dispersion without absorption in the central resonance structure of the spectrum of a bichromatically driven two-level system is investigated. A nonlinear analysis is performed using the technique of continued fractions with respect to the dressedstate basis of a strong pumping laser. We discuss the transition between the two regimes of the monochromatic driving case with a weak probing laser and of nearly equally strong lasers in terms of the contributions from coherences and populations of these dressed states. In contrast with the strong dependence of the Rabi side bands on probe field intensity, we find a remarkable stability of the negative dispersion in the central resonance structure.
We have calculated the excitation spectra of a single electron in the excited state of a three-level atom interacting with two off-resonant laser fields at high intensities. We have also considered the process where one laser photon is absorbed by the ground state, as well as a Raman-type process where one photon of one of the laser fields is emitted while another photon of the other laser field is absorbed simultaneously by the second excited state of the atom. The net excitation spectra of the three processes in question consist of two peaks having always positive intensities indicating induced absorption (attenuation) and a third peak which has positive, zero and negative intensities for values of the Rabi frequencies , and , respectively. When , the Raman-type process prevails over the other two, and the resulting peak has a negative intensity indicating that significant amplification is likely to occur at the corresponding frequency.