It is shown that in order to obtain a correct interpretation of experiments on four-photon nonlinear spectroscopy within the absorption line, it is necessary to allow not only for a coherent four-photon process due to a resonant electronic nonlinearity but also for a similar process involving generation of optically induced diffraction gratings followed by the diffraction of one of the probe beams from these gratings. It is also necessary to allow for the contribution of highly excited molecular states to the resonant electronic nonlinearity. General expressions are derived and investigated for the cubic susceptibility in an isotropic medium. It is found that all nonzero components of this tensor may be expressed in terms of a single scalar function of the interacting wave frequencies. The explicit form of this function is determined in the lowest order of perturbation theory.
It is shown that in order to obtain a correct interpretation of experiments on four-photon nonlinear spectroscopy within the absorption line, it is necessary to allow not only for a coherent four-photon process due to a resonant electronic nonlinearity but also for a similar process involving generation of optically induced diffraction gratings followed by the diffraction of one of the probe beams from these gratings. It is also necessary to allow for the contribution of highly excited molecular states to the resonant electronic nonlinearity. General expressions are derived and investigated for the cubic susceptibility in an isotropic medium. It is found that all nonzero components of this tensor may be expressed in terms of a single scalar function of the interacting wave frequencies. The explicit form of this function is determined in the lowest order of perturbation theory.
Coherent four-photon scattering of light due to excited and autoionizing states of atomic systems is considered. We analyze the influence of one-photon resonances at the frequency of the anti-Stokes signal and at the frequency of the pump wave on the shape of the spectrum of four-photon scattering. We derive analytical expressions for the line shapes of four-photon scattering involving one-photon resonances with allowance for phase-matching conditions and variation in the populations of excited states for limiting regimes of tight focusing and strong absorption in a medium with a cubic nonlinearity. The calculated spectra of four-photon scattering include the interference of resonant and nonresonant components of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility with allowance for one-photon saturation. We develop a method for normalizing experimental spectra of four-photon scattering with one-photon resonances that takes into account distortion of spectral lines due to the influence of phase mismatch and one- photon absorption.
Based on the quantum Liouville formalism, a theory of the two-color, triply resonant four-wave mixing is developed for molecules with isotropically oriented angular momenta. The approach allows to strictly incorporate the relaxation matrices Γ((r)) (r = 0, 1, 2) into the third-order susceptibility χ((3)) whose expression acquires therewith the form of a scalar product in the line space. Thanks to this representation, isolation of all resonance terms from χ((3)) becomes a routine task. Some of these terms correspond to the case when a molecule initially interacts with two pump photons of the same frequency. Such interactions give rise to the grating line-space vectors which have the same (zero) eigenfrequency. Due to this degeneracy, the latter are easily mixed by rotationally inelastic collisions which shows up in a state-resolved coherence transfer. The satellite signals induced thereby provide a great scope to study the state-to-state inelastic rates in situ by purely optical means. If the diagonal form of Γ is assumed, the satellites become forbidden and our results reduce to conventional expressions for the main resonances. Polarization configurations are designed for direct measurements of the population (r = 0), orientation (r = 1), and alignment (r = 2) contributions to χ((3)). Finally, depending on the photon-molecule interaction sequence, the resonance terms of χ((3)) are shown to be differently affected by velocity averaging, the effect which conspicuously manifests itself when Doppler broadening becomes paramount.
By applying a sufficiently intense beam of off-resonant light, simultaneously with a conventional excitation source beam, the efficiencies of one- and two-photon absorption processes may be significantly modified. The nonlinear mechanism that is responsible, known as laser modified absorption, is fully described by a quantum electrodynamical analysis. The origin of the process, which involves stimulated forward Rayleigh-scattering of the auxiliary beam, relates to higher order terms which are secured by a time-dependent perturbation treatment. These terms, usually inconsequential when a single beam of light is present, become prominent under the secondary optical stimulus – even with levels of intensity that are moderate by today’s standards. Distinctive kinds of behaviour may be observed for chromophores fixed in a static arrangement, or for solution- or gas-phase molecules whose response is tempered by a rotational average of orientations. In each case the results exhibit an interplay of factors involving the beam polarisations and the molecular electronic response. Special attention is given to interesting metastable states that are symmetry forbidden by one- or two-photon absorption. Such states may be accessible, and thus become populated, on input of the auxiliary beam. For example, in the one-photon absorption case, terms arise that are more usually associated with three-photon processes, corresponding to very different selection rules. Other kinds of metastable state also arise in the two-photon process, and measuring the effect of applying the stimulus beam to absorbances of such character adds a new dimension to the information content of the associated spectroscopy. Finally, based on these novel forms of optical nonlinearity, there may be new possibilities for quantum non-demolition measurements.
For the interaction of coherent radiation with a nondegenerate, homogeneously broadened multilevel system the nonlinear susceptibilities and excitations and their time dependence are evaluated using a perturbation approach to the density matrix up to fourth order. This is done for the "off-resonance" case, ${(\ensuremath{\Delta}{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}+{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}^{2})}^{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{\gg}\frac{1}{\ensuremath{\tau}}$, as well as for the "on-resonance" case, ${(\ensuremath{\Delta}{\ensuremath{\omega}}^{2}+{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}^{2})}^{\frac{1}{2}}\ensuremath{\ll}\frac{1}{\ensuremath{\tau}}$, with $\ensuremath{\tau}$ being the pulse duration, by taking into account the temporal change of the electric field amplitude and the phase and energy relaxation times, T2 and T1. It is shown that the transient one-photon excitation known as adiabatic following, is not only important for a pulse duration $\ensuremath{\tau}<{T}_{2}$, but may also be important for ${T}_{2}\ensuremath{\lesssim}\ensuremath{\tau}<{T}_{1}$. In addition, expressions for the transient two-photon excitation in a multilevel system are derived. Finally, the two-level limit is evaluated to all orders of the perturbation including damping effects, which gives results valid also for large incident light intensities. For the "off-resonance" case an expression is obtained which describes not only the transient adiabatic following process, but also the usual one-photon absorption including saturation effects giving rise to power broadening.
The theory of optical birefringence is discussed from the point of view of the scattering of polarized photons by molecules using the framework of formal scattering theory and quantum electrodynamics. In Part One, those features from noncovariant quantum electrodynamics relevant to the molecular scattering of photons are reviewed. Chapter One contains an outline of classical electrodynamics in the Coulomb gauge, including the Stokes parameter and density matrix formulations of polarization. Chapter Two deals with the quantization of the radiation field, and the occupation number representation is defined. The quantum mechanical description of polarized light is outlined in Chapter Three: operator equivalents of the density matrix and Stokes parameters are invoked, the parameters themselves being obtained from the expectation values of the Stokes operators with the state vector of the photon. The Stokes parameter and density matrix are then applied to the polarization of a general beam containing an arbitrary number of photons, and some new methods are developed. The interaction of the electromagnetic field with bound electrons is formulated in Chapter Four in terms of a canonically transformed interaction Hamiltonian in which the multipole terms are explicit. Since each term is then gauge-invariant, this Hamiltonian is particularly suited to the application of diagrammatic perturbation theory which follows from the iteration of the scattering matrix in the interaction representation (Chapter Five). Also the extension of the theory to multiphoton processes is facilitated "because the field strength is explicit in the transformed Hamiltonian. The S-matrix connects the initial and final asymptotic states of the scattering system, and in Chapter Six the state vector and density operator of the scattered photon beam are obtained from those of the incident beam. Part Two contains the application of the above methods to a variety of linear and nonlinear optical birefringence effects in the absence or presence of external fields. In Chapter Seven, general equations are obtained for the polarization changes imposed on a forward scattered photon in terms of matrix elements of the reaction operator between plane polarized photon base states; whereas Chapter Eight extends this treatment to an n-photon beam, thereby encompassing the hyperpolarizability contributions to the polarization changes of the forward scattered beam. It is then demonstrated that the fundamental process in optical birefringence can be interpreted as an infinitesimal unitary transformation of the polarization spinor. Also the S-matrix approach to birefringence is compared with the methods used in crystal optics, and with the classical treatments of the scattering of polarized light by molecules. The general equations obtained for the polarization changes of the forward scattered beam are subsequently interpreted in the light of the physical circumstances appropriate to the bire- fringence effect of interest. In Chapters Nine, Ten, and Eleven, diagrammatic perturbation theory is used to obtain explicit expressions, in terms of molecular polarizability and rotation tensors, for the linear and nonlinear contributions to the polarization changes involved in natural optical activity, and in birefringence phenomena induced by static and optical electric and magnetic fields. The nonforward scattering of polarized photons by molecules is discussed in Part Three. General equations are calculated in Chapter Twelve for the azimuth, ellipticity, and depolarization ratio of the Rayleigh beam at any scattering angle and for any polarization of the incident beam. Explicit expressions in terms of molecular quantities are then obtained for the polarization at scattering angles of 90° and almost zero from both optically inactive and optically active molecules. It is demonstrated that a determination of the precise polarization state of the scattered beam can provide useful molecular information additional to that obtained from depolarization ratios alone. This is because the depolarization ratio depends on only the diagonal elements of the polarization density matrix and so does not convey all the information about the system. Raman scattering processes are contained in the formulation and the polarization of the Raman light at any scattering angle can be obtained. This is shown to be particularly useful for predicting the polarization of stimulated Raman light for any Raman-active liquid placed within a laser cavity. By extending the nonforward scattering formulation to incorporate multiphoton processes, equations are obtained in Chapter Thirteen for the ellipticity, azimuth, and depolarization ratio of the second harmonic wave at any scattering angle as a function of the incident polarization. Several specific situations are subsequently investigated. Finally, it is shown in Chapter Fourteen that the near-forw- ard Rayleigh and Raman scattering formulations provide an explanation for the observed polarization, as a function of the initial polarization, of the self-trapped filaments that arise from the self-focusing of an intense laser beam.
Four-wave mixing processes with double and triple resonances are discussed in detail. Explicit expressions for the resonant nonlinear susceptibilities of various cases are derived. It is shown that in some cases, four-wave mixing can yield a spectrum with reduced inhomogeneous broadening. Possible applications of multiresonant four-wave mixing as a spectroscopic technique are considered. They include high-resolution spectroscopy, deduction of transition matrix elements, study of transitions between excited states, measurement of longitudinal relaxation times, distinction between resonant Raman scattering and resonant fluorescence, etc. Selective polarization arrangement allows us to suppress the nonresonant background, separately measure the real and imaginary parts of the resonant nonlinear susceptibility, minimize the effects of absorption and laser intensity fluctuations, and greatly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio.