The Journal of Chemical Physics
Theory of time and frequency resolved resonance secondary radiation from a three-level system
Joseph S. Melinger, A. C. Albrecht
Abstract
The perturbative density matrix formalism is used to study the time-dependent resonance Raman scattering (RRS) and resonance hot luminescence (RHL) components of the light-induced spontaneous emission process that has been called resonance secondary radiation (RSR). A three-level system coupled in a stochastic way to a bath is used to study the RSR emission driven by a coherent laser pulse with a variable Gaussian width in time. The spectral filter in a light detection system is explicitly included in the detection step of the problem. Observable time and frequency resolved RSR spectra are then calculated numerically. The spectral and temporal properties of the time-dependent RSR spectrum are very sensitive to the width of the driving pulse when the pulse width is of the same order of magnitude as the important system dephasing constants. In this domain the RRS contribution to the RSR spectrum weakens relative to the RHL as the light pulse is shortened. In the limit that the laser pulse becomes ‘‘delta function-like’’ the RSR spectrum consists essentially of RHL. When appropriate, the numerical results are compared to the stationary RSR problem as well as to the case where the RSR emission is driven by an exponential pulse. The analytical solutions to both of these cases are presented.