We present an analysis of the transmission of a weak optical pulse, with energy 1ℏω0, through a dense absorbing medium with absorption frequency ω0. We analyze the system by treating the optical pulse classically and the absorbing medium quantum mechanically. We find that the probabilistic back reaction of the quantum absorber on the classical pulse impresses statistical behavior on the pulse that does not arise from quantization of the optical field. All properties of the optical transmission and atomic absorption are self-consistent without contradiction. Issues relating to conservation of energy are resolved by considering the impact of superposition states on conservation laws in individual interactions. As a result, we conclude that transmission of a weak optical pulse with energy 1ℏω0 through a dense atomic absorber does not require quantization of the field.
We present an analysis of the transmission of a weak optical pulse, with energy 1ℏω0, through a dense absorbing medium with absorption frequency ω0. We analyze the system by treating the optical pulse classically and the absorbing medium quantum mechanically. We find that the probabilistic back reaction of the quantum absorber on the classical pulse impresses statistical behavior on the pulse that does not arise from quantization of the optical field. All properties of the optical transmission and atomic absorption are self-consistent without contradiction. Issues relating to conservation of energy are resolved by considering the impact of superposition states on conservation laws in individual interactions. As a result, we conclude that transmission of a weak optical pulse with energy 1ℏω0 through a dense atomic absorber does not require quantization of the field.
The theory of the absorption of a weak optical pulse by an optically dense medium is shown to lead to unphysical results unless the radiation field is quantized. In contrast to the photoelectric effect, the atom-field dynamics for pulsed field absorption can be obtained using elementary quantum mechanics without imposing any assumptions on the nature of the detection process. As such, pulsed field absorption offers distinct advantages over the photoelectric effect as a proving ground for field quantization. If the classical field pulse is replaced by a quantized, multimode field state, many classical field results are recovered without the inconsistencies that arise in the classical field calculation.
The spatial and temporal dynamics of two short pulses propagating in an optically dense medium of resonant three-level Λ-atoms is investigated numerically and analytically. The maximum coherence for the Raman transition due to coherent population trapping. It is shown that, at the initial stage of propagation, the waveforms of such pulses only slightly change along the length of the medium, which may considerably exceed the length of linear absorption for a single weak pulse. As the length of the absorbing medium increases, the energy of the probe (first) pulse is completely transferred into the second (control) pulse.
Abstract In the framework of the consistent microscopic theory, universal analytic expressions describing absorption of laser pulses of an arbitrary duration in an optically dense medium have been derived, and their limiting cases have been considered. For the Gaussian and Lorentzian spectral profiles, simple expressions have been obtained for the absorption coefficient as a function of dimensionless parameters (optical thickness of the medium, the pulse duration and carrier frequency). Based on the performed calculations, the effect of the optical thickness of the medium on the dependences of the absorption coefficient on the pulse parameters has been revealed.
We show that four-wave mixing in optically dense media is very different than in an optically thin medium. In time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing we experimentally observe ``negative'' time delay response, fast decay rates at short delay times, and broad shoulders at long delays. The observations are explained very well in terms of pulse propagation effects, and a theoretical framework is presented for the analysis of the nonlinear interaction. We treat both the incident and generated fields self-consistently, and solve for the interaction of short pulses with a resonantly absorbing medium. The implications for the extraction of relaxation rates from four-wave-mixing experiments involving ultrashort pulses in optically dense matter are discussed.
An attempt is made to present a consistent detailed theory of optical phenomena, based on the suggestion recently made by the author in collaboration with Bohr and Kramers. This suggestion is that atoms are radiating or absorbing continuously, during their stationary states, and that transitions influence radiation only in terminating the radiation characteristic of the old state, and substituting that of the new. The atoms, on the other hand, are supposed not to change their energy while radiating, but to change it discontinuously on transition. This necessitates giving up the detailed application of the conservation of energy in interaction between atoms and radiation. In the present paper, an additional suggestion is made, namely that resonance radiation is to be identified with the radiation carried out by the spherical wavelets which, by their interference with the external field, also produce absorption. This is practically a return to the classical picture of resonance radiation. Statement of the theory consists formally of two parts: the description of the behavior of atoms, and of radiation, when the two interact. The first involves the statement of the probabilities of transition of atoms, and is taken without change from Einstein. The probability of interruption of coherent vibrations is also discussed. The second requires the specification of the fields emitted by atoms in any steady state under the influence of any external field. These consist of spherical wavelets of the frequencies of the various quantum lines which the atom can emit or absorb in the stationary state in which it is. For emission frequencies, wavelets are emitted even in the absence of an external field; for absorption frequencies, external fields induce wavelets, similar to the wavelets of linearly bound electrons in electron theory, which on the one hand interfere with the external field to produce the phenomena of dispersion, etc., and on the other carry out the resonance radiation in all directions. Detailed descriptions of these fields are given. In a discussion of the theory, it is first shown that the assumptions which have been made about the field satisfy the correspondence principle, in that for large quantum numbers the field aproaches that which would be emitted classically on account of the interaction of an external field and a multiply periodic atom. On the other hand, it is shown that the field has a character essentially like that of classical electron theory, which is known to be in general agreement with experiments. Next, the energy and momentum relations at interaction of atoms and light are investigated, and it is shown that, although these quantities are not precisely conserved, still the assumptions as to atomic and radiation processes have been so made that they are conserved on an average over a great number of atomic processes. Finally the spectral resolution of emitted and absorbed radiation is considered; the theory gives a minimum breadth for the lines, depending on the finite length of wave trains resulting from the finite life in stationary states, and it is shown that Kirchhoff's law is obeyed, the emission and absorption lines being of the same breadth. By way of illustration, specific application of the theory is made to the simple examples of emission of light by bombardment of electrons at the resonance potential, resonance radiation, its quenching by presence of foreign gases, absorption, scattering, and disperison.
The nonstationary pump-probe interaction between short laser pulses propagating in a resonant optically dense coherent medium is considered. Special attention is paid to the case where the density of two-level particles is high enough that a considerable part of the energy of relatively weak external laser fields can be coherently absorbed and reemitted by the medium. Thus, the field of the medium reaction plays a key role in the interaction processes, which leads to collective behavior of an atomic ensemble in the strongly coupled light-matter system. Such behavior results in fast excitation interchanges between the field and a medium in the form of optical ringing, which is analogous to polariton beating in solid-state optics. This collective oscillating response, which can be treated as successive beats between light wave packets of different group velocities, is shown to significantly affect the propagation and amplification of the probe field under its nonlinear interaction with a nearly copropagating pump pulse. Depending on the probe-pump time delay, the probe transmission spectra show the appearance of either a specific doublet or coherent dip. The widths of these features are determined by the density-dependent field-matter coupling coefficient and increase during the propagation. Besides that, the widths of the coherent features, which appear close to resonance in the broadband probe spectrum, exceed the absorption-line width, since under the strong-coupling regime, the frequency of optical ringing exceeds the rate of incoherent relaxation. Contrary to stationary strong-field effects, the density- and coordinate-dependent transmission spectra of the probe manifest the importance of collective oscillations and cannot be obtained in the framework of a single-atom model.