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Physical Review A

Nature of the quantum interference in electromagnetic-field-induced control of absorption

G. S. Agarwal

Published Mar 1, 1997• 79 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Various three-level schemes for electromagnetic-field-induced control of absorption are analyzed to isolate the precise nature of the quantum interference. Such interference manifests through the dispersive contributions to the absorption line shapes. Depending on the excitation scheme, the dispersive terms can be either constructive or destructive. The collisional dephasing in some cases can change the nature of interference.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.55.2467

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Various three-level schemes for electromagnetic-field-induced control of absorption are analyzed to isolate the precise nature of the quantum interference. Such interference manifests through the dispersive contributions to the absorption line shapes. Depending on the excitation scheme, the dispersive terms can be either constructive or destructive. The collisional dephasing in some cases can change the nature of interference.
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In this paper we reveal that the constructive interference of atomic coherence on absorption leads to electromagnetically induced absorption,which is in sharp contrast to the case in which destructive interference of atomic coherence gives rise to electromagnetically induced transparency. A four-level atomic system is employed in which three transitions are in N configuration and the middle transition is used as a probe transition. In the dressed states representation the probe transition is split into four transitions that are coupled to each other. The coupling originates from the spontaneous emission of the atomic medium and the spontaneous transfer from excited state coherence to ground state coherence. The former leads to couplings between all transitions with the same sign and to the absorption reduction. The latter results in couplings,of which t wo terms have positive sign and another two have negative sign. It is due to the couplings with positive and negative signs that significant modification of the contribution of dressed coherence to absorption occurs,i.e., absorption inhibition is changed to absorption enhancement.
The influence of the dephasing on interference is investigated theoretically and experimentally in three-level electromagnetically induced transparency systems. The nature of the interference, constructive, no interference or destructive, can be controlled by adjusting the dephasing rates. This new phenomenon is experimentally observed in meta-atoms. The physics behind the dephasing-induced control of interference nature is the competing between stimulated emission and spontaneous emission. The random phase fluctuation due to the dephasing will result in the correlation and anti-correlation between the two dressed states, which will enhance and reduce the stimulated emission, respectively.
A three level scheme interacting with three laser fields is considered. It is found that two competing processes contribute to the absorption/dispersion on a particular transition: (i) one-photon processes governed by the field applied to that transition, and (ii) two-photon processes governed by the two laser fields applied to two other transitions. Interference between the two processes can be both constructive and destructive. It is shown that the net absorption/gain and dispersion can be controlled by the relative phases of the laser fields.
A full quantum treatment is given of suppression of absorption and lasing without inversion in a ∧-type three-level atom induced by a strong driving field resonant with the two lower levels. The nature of the quantum interference leading to the suppression of absorption and lasing without inversion and its relation to the initial state preparation are studied. Particular attention is given to the effects that arise specifically from the quantum nature of the driving field. It is shown that, because of the distinguishability of the states of the driving field that have different photon numbers, destructive interference is confined to occur within a finite region of the photon number space. A complete cancellation of absorption predicted in the semiclassical theory should thus be regarded as resulting from an ideal behavior achieved only in the classical limit when the driving field is given as a strong coherent field.
We observed quantum interference effects in steady-state optical absorption in a VVV-type three-level system of Pr3+:YAlO3{\mathrm{Pr}}^{3+}:{\mathrm{YAlO}}_{3}Pr3+:YAlO3​ where a hyperfine transition between two upper levels was homogeneously broadened by pure dephasing. This VVV-type system was excited by a single driving radio-frequency (rf) field and two probe laser fields (quantum-beat scheme). The probe absorption was constructively or destructively affected by the phase of the driving rf field. In contrast, under two-laser excitation without application of the rf, no absorption change due to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) was observed. A comparison of observations and theoretical predictions revealed that the quantum-beat scheme generates quantum interference even when the dephasing rate between the two upper levels is comparable with the Rabi frequency of the probe laser, and completely destroys EIT.