We consider a three-level atomic system interacting with two coherent fields in the ladder configuration. Namely, the pumping field couples the ground and first excited state while the driving field interacts with the two excited states. The intensity spectrum of resonant optical fluorescence at the two-photon transition is studied. It is shown that coherent driving in this scheme allows for efficient control of fluorescence distribution between the one-photon (elastic with respect to pumping field) and two-photon (anti-Stoke Raman with respect to the driving field) channels.
We consider a three-level atomic system interacting with two coherent fields in the ladder configuration. Namely, the pumping field couples the ground and first excited state while the driving field interacts with the two excited states. The intensity spectrum of resonant optical fluorescence at the two-photon transition is studied. It is shown that coherent driving in this scheme allows for efficient control of fluorescence distribution between the one-photon (elastic with respect to pumping field) and two-photon (anti-Stoke Raman with respect to the driving field) channels.
We derive and compare the optical fluorescence spectra for all three transitions for three-level systems coherently coupled with two fields in a cascade or lambda configuration. It is shown that the total intensity of fluorescence at the combinational frequency (the sum or difference of the driving field frequencies in the ladder and lambda systems, respectively) may essentially exceed the fluorescence intensity at the driven transitions under the condition of two-photon resonance. The influence of additional homogeneous and inhomogeneous line broadening on the distribution of intensities between different fluorescence channels is studied. In particular, Doppler broadening is found to suppress fluorescence from the driven transitions but in some cases not from the combinational transition.
The resonant absorption, emission, and scattering of light are the fundamental optical processes that have been used both to probe matter and to manipulate light itself. In the last decade there has been essential progress in coherent control of both linear and nonlinear optical responses based on resonant excitation of atomic coherence in multilevel quantum systems. Some interesting and useful phenomena, resulting from coherent control of absorption and the group index, such as electromagnetically induced transparency, lasing without inversion, and ultra-slow group velocity of light have been widely studied. This work is focused on coherent control of refractive index and resonant fluorescence in multilevel medium. \n \nWe suggest two promising schemes for resonant enhancement of the refractive index with eliminated absorption and propose their implementation in transition element doped crystals with excited state absorption and in a cell of Rb atoms at natural abundance. We show how to use one of these schemes for spatial variation of the refractive index via its periodic resonant increase/decrease, remarkably keeping at the same time zero absorption/gain. It opens the way to production of transparent photonic structures (such as distributed Bragg reflectors, holey fibers, or photonic crystals) in a homogeneous resonant atomic media such as dielectrics with homogeneously distributed impurities, atomic, or molecular gases. These optically produced photonic structures could easily be controlled (including switching on/off, changing amplitude and period of modulation) and would be highly selective in frequency, naturally limited by the width of the optical resonance. \n \nWe also derive the optical fluorescence spectra of a three-level medium driven by two coherent fields at the adjacent transitions in a general case when all three transitions are allowed. We show that coherent driving can efficiently control the distribution of intensities between the fluorescent channels. In particular, the total intensity of fluorescence at the transition which is not driven by the optical fields may essentially exceed the fluorescence intensity at the driven transitions under the condition of two-photon resonance. This counter-intuitive effect is due to depletion of the intermediate state via atomic interference.
Resonance fluorescence of two-level quantum systems has emerged as a powerful tool in quantum information processing. Extension of this approach to higher-level systems provides new opportunities for quantum optics applications. Here we introduce an all-optical tuning functionality into a well-established resonance fluorescence coherent driving scheme. We accomplish this by resonant excitation of a three-level ladder system with two laser fields utilizing Autler-Townes and ac Stark effects. We propose theoretically and demonstrate experimentally the feasibility of this approach toward all-optical spectral tuning of quantum-dot-based single-photon sources and investigate photon indistinguishability and purity levels. Our tuning technique allows for fast optical control of the quantum emitter spectrum which paves the way toward temporal and spectral shaping of the single photons, formation of topological Floquet states, or generation of high-dimensional frequency-encoded quantum states of light.
We theoretically investigate resonance fluorescence of a ladder- and a triangular-type three-level atomic system in the full quantization regime. By solving Heisenberg’s quantum kinetic equations of motion of an electron interacting with photons and two coherent laser fields, we obtain the firstorder electric field correlation function, which corresponds to photoluminescence spectrum. When the single electrons in both systems are resonantly excited by two strong cw-laser fields, in contrast to the ladder-type atomic systems emitting mainly incoherent photons, the triangular-type system shows that continuous coherent photons can be selectively generated from three optical transitions by trapping electronic population inversions and manipulated by changing the transition rates.
We consider the possible physical processes that may arise in a three-level atom when only two of its levels interact with a strong electromagnetic field and when the atomic transition frequency is nearly equal to once and twice the frequency of the laser field, respectively. There have been found pronounced cooperative effects in the spectrum of the two-level system, which is in resonance with the laser field, arising from the presence of the third level. The excitation spectra describing the transitions from the first excited state into the second excited state and from that to the ground state consist, apart from the two central peaks, of two pairs of sidebands which are induced by the laser field of the neighbouring system. Detailed expressions of the spectral functions for the physical processes of one- and two-photon resonance fluorescence have been derived and discussed in the limit of high photon densities. The excitation spectrum of the low frequency modes has been considered and discussed in detail. It is found that quantum beats in spontaneous emission may appear in the spectra of the one- and two-photon resonance fluorescence arising from the interference between the two atomic transition frequencies and the frequency of the laser field. The importance of the low frequency modes that occur in the processes in question has been pointed out.
A theoretical study is made of the steady-state intensity and squeezing properties of the fluorescent light from a three-level-atom system in a ladder configuration, which is subject to spontaneous-emission decay to the electromagnetic-field vacuum. Two cases are examined: in the equispaced (ES) level case, the two atomic transition frequencies are nearly equal and two photon absorption processes occur from a single coherent laser field that couples both transitions and has a small detuning from each; in the non- equispaced (NES) level case, the atomic transition frequencies are rather different and two photon absorption processes occur from two coherent laser fields, each coupled to a single transition and in near resonance with it. In both cases, a situation of small two-photon detuning occurs. Optical Bloch equations for the atomic density matrix in rotating frames are given and matrix expressions for determining the steady-state populations and coherences are obtained. Analytic expressions are also given for special cases. The fluorescent intensity is obtained from the populations of the intermediate and upper states, with the normally ordered variance (NOV) for quadrature components of the fluorescent field involving, in addition, the atomic coherences. The fluorescent intensities are shown graphically as a function of two-photon detuning for a variety of one-photon detunings and Rabi frequencies for the ES and NES cases.In both cases, the fluorescent intensities show the well known resonances from the upper state at zero two-photon detuning and from the intermediate state at zero one-photon detuning for the lower transition. However, further resonances are also found. The intermediate-state intensity displays a resonance at zero two-photon detuning. Also, the upper-state intensity shows a resonance at zero one-photon detuning for the upper transition, but only for the NES case; evidently, the transfer rate from upper to lower transition coherences destroys this resonance for the ES case. The time-averaged NOV is also shown graphically as a function of two-photon detuning for a variety of one-photon detunings and Rabi frequencies for the ES and NES cases. For the ES case, the quadrature frequency is chosen as the single laser frequency and for the NES case, it is chosen as either the average of the two laser frequencies or the lower transition laser frequency. Squeezing occurs near zero two-photon detuning for both ES and NES cases, though only for the quadrature frequency equal to the average laser frequency in the latter case. It also occurs near zero detuning for the lower transition for both cases, though only for the quadrature frequency equal to the lower transition laser frequency in the NES case. The squeezing minima show a splitting effect for large Rabi frequencies corresponding to two-photon or one-photon Rabi splitting of the dressed atom levels for the situation near two-photon or one-photon resonance, respectively. The large squeezing near two-photon resonance for moderate Rabi frequencies and large one-photon detuning corresponds to essentially pure three-level squeezing, while that near one-photon resonance for weak Rabi frequencies involves two-level squeezing.