Physical Review A
Role of initial coherence in the generation of harmonics and sidebands from a strongly driven two-level atom
F. I. Gauthey, Christoph H. Keitel, P. L. Knight, A. Maquet
Abstract
We investigate the coherent and incoherent contributions of the scattering spectrum of strongly driven two-level atoms as a function of the initial preparation of the atomic system. The initial ``phasing'' of the coherent superposition of the excited and ground states is shown to influence strongly the generation of both harmonics and hyper-Raman lines. In particular, we point out conditions under which harmonic generation can be inhibited at the expense of the hyper-Raman lines. Our numerical findings are supported by approximate analytical evaluation in the dressed state picture.