In this paper, our multi-level theory of time-delay four wave mixing with incoherent light (TDFWM-IL) developed previously for the case of homogeneous broadening system has been extended to a generally inhomogeneous broadening case. From the present theory, a general expression of signal intensity for absorption band with both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening is given as a function of mutual time delay τ between two pump beams. Photon echo with incoherent light under the condition of extremely inhomogeneous broadening is discussed, and the difference of results obtained scperately from multi-level and two-level theory is pointed out. It has been demonstrated that the experiment of TDFWM-IL can also be analysed approximately by using an effective two-level model when a weak effect of inhomogeneous broadening of absorption band exists. Finally, our experimental results of TDFWM-IL obtained at zero-phonon line of ruby and absorption edge of cresyl violet film in PMMA are also presented and compared with the theory mentioned above.
A multilevel model, including homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening, is proposed for the study of time-delay four-wave mixing with incoherent light (TDFWM-IL) in absorption bands consisting of a series of vibrational transitions. A theory of TDFWM-IL is developed for this model, and a general formula for the delay-time dependence of the signal intensity Is(τ), considering both the homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening of the transitions, is deduced. Special analyses are given to the homogeneous and inhomogeneous limits. The differences between Is(τ) derived from multilevel theory and from two-level theory, are pointed out. When the homogeneous broadening of individual transitions is much smaller than the frequency interval of adjacent transitions, Is(τ) in the multilevel theory is modulated periodically and the envelope is close to that in the two-level theory for both the homogeneous and inhomogeneous limits. When the individual transitions are homogeneously broadened enough so that an unresolved continuous band is formed, an effective two-level model can still be used approximately for the studies of TDFWM-IL in this continuous band, with both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening. However, the dephasing time [Formula: see text] in the formula of Is(τ) in this effective two-level model is not the real dephasing time of an individual transition of the band, but the effective one which reflects the behavior of the whole band.
A new method of picosecond and femtosecond transient spectroscopy yielding information about ultrafast relaxation processes without requiring ultrashort light pulses is presented. It is based on the present theoretical analysis of the resonant degenerate four-wave-mixing process excited by two temporally incoherent light beams with wave vectors ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{1}$ and ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{2}$ which are originated from a single beam at frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ but have mutual time delay $\ensuremath{\tau}$. Under the assumption that the incoherent light field has Gaussian random complex amplitude and that the resonant material consists of the usual two-level atoms, the statistically averaged intensity of the output light field with ${\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{3}=2{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{2}\ensuremath{-}{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{\mathrm{k}}}_{1}$ at $\ensuremath{\omega}$ is calculated as a function of $\ensuremath{\tau}$. Even with the light having a much longer duration than both
T1 (the longitudinal relaxation time) and
T2 (the transverse relaxation time), the correlation trace, i.e., output intensity versus $\ensuremath{\tau}$, represents a decay profile determined mainly by
T2 for both homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened transitions, as long as the light correlation time ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ is much shorter than the relaxation times. The correlation trace does not always represent a single-exponential decay but is sometimes slightly deformed by the
T1 effect. However, it does not cause a significant error in the determination of
T2. Moreover, as $\frac{{T}_{2}}{{T}_{1}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$, the trace becomes a single-exponential decay curve determined only by
T2. The feature of the results obtained by the present method is similar to that obtained by the conventional coherent transient spectroscopy with short pulses, such as the photon echo. The time resolution in the present method, however, is limited only by ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{c}$ much shorter than the light duration. By regarding the incoherent light as a series of random ultrashort pulses, the present four-wave-mixing process is also interpreted as the ensemble of numerous transient four-wave-mixing processes caused by various combinations of these pulses.
Signal intensity as a function of mutual delay time of three incoherent pump beams in the degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) process has been calculated with the second-order correlation time of the fields being much shorter than both the dephasing time T 2 and the inverse of the inhomogeneous broadening width δω. The results show that when broadening is purely homogeneous and extremely inhomogeneous, the curve of the DFWM signal intensity as a function of the delay time τ shows no peak shift, while when the inhomogeneous broadening is finite, the peak shift is related to the dephasing time T 2 and the inhomogeneous width δω, and can thus be used to estimate T 2.
A systematic theoretical and computational investigation of the microscopic factors which determine the phase of the signal field in time-resolved quasidegenerate three-pulse scattering experiments is presented. The third-order phase-matched response is obtained by density-matrix perturbation theory using a Green-function formalism for a system composed of two well-separated sets of closely spaced energy levels. Equations for calculating the electric field of four-wave-mixing signals generated by path-length delayed pulses are given. It is found that the phase of the signal field is determined by the excitation pulse phases, the dynamics of the nonlinear polarization decay, the product of four transition dipole matrix elements, and by a pulse-delay-dependent phase modulation at the frequency of the first dipole oscillation in the four-wave-mixing process. Analytic results for a two-level Bloch model show the phase shift from rapid nonlinear polarization decay. The product of dipole matrix elements is real and positive for three-level processes (bleached ground-state absorption and excited-state emission), but can be real and negative for some four-level Raman processes. The pulse-delay-dependent phase modulation treated here is closely related to the interferometric pulse-delay-dependent amplitude modulation observed in some collinear experiments, and plays a role in producing photon echos in inhomogeneously broadened samples. Numerical calculations of phase-resolved electric fields for finite duration pulses using a Brownian oscillator model appropriate for condensed-phase dynamics are presented. The ability of pulse-delay-dependent phase modulation to encode the frequency of the initially excited dipole onto the phase of the signal field can be exploited to examine energy-level connectivity, reveal correlations hidden under the inhomogeneous lineshape, and probe relaxation pathways in multilevel systems.
Four-wave mixing in homogeneously broadened, two-level atoms, driven by time-delayed, correlated phase-diffusing optical fields is investigated. The spectrum of the driving field has an arbitrary bandwidth, i.e., it can have a Lorentzian or a Gaussian profile or an intermediate profile (Voigt). A time delay between the strong pump and weak probe field provides a partial correlation between the fields, and this time delay makes the composite field seen by the atoms non-Markovian. It is shown that the calculation of the four-wave-mixing signal reduces to the solution of six coupled Langevin equations with multiplicative noise; Monte Carlo techniques are utilized to study the response of the atoms to non-Markovian fields. A technique for numerically simulating phase-diffusing fields with colored frequency fluctuations is shown. The four-wave-mixing profiles are found to be significantly different from those for which the driving field is chaotic. The profiles show oscillatory behavior as evidence of the Rabi frequency, a feature not seen in previous works. For some parameter values, a revival of the signal is seen for an increasing time delay, analogous to the revivals seen in chaotic field signals [Phys. Rev. A 44, 6009 (1991)].