Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics
On the effects of permanent molecular dipole moments in two-photon molecular excitations: an analytic generalized rotating wave approximation treatment including both the direct permanent dipole and the virtual state excitation mechanisms
One of the purposes of this paper is to develop an analytical many-level generalized rotating wave approximation (GRWA), including the effects of permanent dipoles, for the excitation of many-level molecules through the simultaneous absorption of two photons. Included are expressions for the two-photon laser–molecule coupling C, and its two components Cd and Cv corresponding to the direct permanent dipole and the virtual state excitation mechanisms, respectively, and related observables such as the time-dependent populations of the initial and final states of the excitation process and resonance profiles. This GRWA treatment also includes an energy shift parameter e, which causes shifts in the position of the resonance energy as the laser intensity increases. The effects of permanent dipoles are very different in Cv and e versus Cd. These effects have been discussed previously for Cd using analytic two-level RWA approaches. The analytical results for Cv and e obtained here are new as is their use in discussing the influence of permanent dipoles in the parts of the two-photon excitation process involving virtual states. In the absence of permanent dipoles Cd is zero whereas Cv and e are not; they equal the corresponding perturbation theory results. The GRWA and perturbative results are related by Bessel function damping functions which, for dipolar molecules, damp out the divergence of the perturbative results as the laser intensity increases. Illustrative examples are given for a two-photon excitation involving a model chromophore which has a significant virtual state contribution through both the laser–molecule coupling and the energy shift parameter.
One of the purposes of this paper is to develop an analytical many-level generalized rotating wave approximation (GRWA), including the effects of permanent dipoles, for the excitation of many-level molecules through the simultaneous absorption of two photons. Included are expressions for the two-photon laser–molecule coupling C, and its two components Cd and Cv corresponding to the direct permanent dipole and the virtual state excitation mechanisms, respectively, and related observables such as the time-dependent populations of the initial and final states of the excitation process and resonance profiles. This GRWA treatment also includes an energy shift parameter e, which causes shifts in the position of the resonance energy as the laser intensity increases. The effects of permanent dipoles are very different in Cv and e versus Cd. These effects have been discussed previously for Cd using analytic two-level RWA approaches. The analytical results for Cv and e obtained here are new as is their use in discussing the influence of permanent dipoles in the parts of the two-photon excitation process involving virtual states. In the absence of permanent dipoles Cd is zero whereas Cv and e are not; they equal the corresponding perturbation theory results. The GRWA and perturbative results are related by Bessel function damping functions which, for dipolar molecules, damp out the divergence of the perturbative results as the laser intensity increases. Illustrative examples are given for a two-photon excitation involving a model chromophore which has a significant virtual state contribution through both the laser–molecule coupling and the energy shift parameter.
Perturbative corrections are derived for the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) for the single-photon and multiphoton resonance profiles due to the interaction between a two-level molecule, with nonzero permanent dipoles, and a sinusoidal time-dependent electric field. The derivation is carried out through the use of a Floquet secular equation that introduces the effects of the permanent dipole moments into the problem through the argument, d\ensuremath{\cdot}e^scrE/\ensuremath{\omega}, of Bessel functions contained in molecule-laser coupling parameters; here d=${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{22}$-${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{11}$, where ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\mathrm{ii}}$ is the permanent dipole of molecular state i, and scrE, e^, and \ensuremath{\omega} are the field strength, direction of polarization unit vector, and the circular frequency of the electromagnetic field (EMF). Expansions for the N-photon resonance profiles and the associated resonance frequencies and full widths at half maximum, in powers of the couplings between the transition and permanent dipole moments and the applied EMF, are obtained by expanding the Bessel functions in the perturbative results and are compared with those in the literature (available mostly for d=0 only). The perturbative results, and a series of exactly calculated two-level model absorption spectra, are used to discuss (1) the ability of the explicit perturbative corrections to the RWA to explain the differences between exact and RWA resonance profiles (for example, the positive or negative Bloch-Siegert shifts and dynamic backgrounds absent in the RWA), (2) the usefulness of the perturbative corrections in general, and (3) the effects of permanent dipoles on single-photon and multiphoton absorption spectra.
The dependence of the population of the target state, and the excitation cross section and rate, on pulse duration Q, laser intensity I, and a molecular matrix element A is discussed for two-photon molecular excitation. Perturbative and rotating wave approximation (RWA) expressions for the observables are obtained; the latter are used to discuss the validity of the former. For example, the perturbative cross section and rate increasingly underestimate the RWA results as I increases for given A and Q. Two- and ten-level model dipolar molecules are employed for illustrative purposes. The results are relevant for understanding two-photon excitation processes and their enhancement and include discussions of the roles the permanent dipole- and virtual-state mechanisms in such processes and of the validity of using intensity-independent cross sections to gauge the strength of such excitations.
The interaction of two continuous wave electric fields (lasers) with a two-level molecule, that has a nonzero difference d, between the permanent dipoles of the two states involved in a multiphoton two-color transition, is studied in the rotating wave approximation and by using exact methods. Analytical rotating wave approximation results for the time-dependent populations of the molecular states and for the resonance profiles are derived and used to help discuss the effects of permanent dipole moments in the two-color absorption problem. Several examples of multiphoton, two-color, two-level resonance profiles calculated in the rotating wave approximation and by using exact techniques, are employed for illustrative purposes. They are used to help quantify the conditions for the validity of the two-color rotating wave approximation, which are considerably more restrictive than the analogous conditions for the one-color rotating wave approximation with d≠0, and to illustrate the interpretive and predictive nature of the rotating wave approximation results. For example, there are many multiphoton, two-color transitions that are available if a molecule possesses permanent dipoles (d≠0). The analytic rotating wave approximation expression for the molecule-two laser coupling can often be used to reliably estimate the field parameters of the two lasers that are required to optimize a given transition relative to others.
A model two-level dipolar molecule, and the rotating wave approximation and perturbation theory, are used to investigate the optimization and the laser intensity dependence of the two-photon excitation rate via the direct permanent dipole mechanism. The rate is proportional to the square of the laser intensity I only for small intensities and times when perturbation theory is applicable. An improvement on perturbation theory is provided by a small time RWA result for the rate which is not proportional to I2; rather it is proportional to the square of an effective intensity Ieff. For each laser intensity the optimum RWA excitation rate as a function of time, for low intensities, is proportional to I, not I2, and for high intensities it is proportional to Ieff. For a given two-photon transition the laser-molecule coupling optimizes for an intensity Imax which, for example, leads to a maximum possible excitation rate as a function of time. The validity of the RWA results of this paper, and the importance of including the effects of virtual excited states, are also discussed briefly.
An analytic expression for the absorption spectra of a two-level molecule or atom is derived, within the rotating wave approximation (RWA), which includes the effects of permanent dipole moments and static electric fields. The derivation is for the interaction of the system with a plane-polarized sinusoidal electromagnetic field (EMF) in the semi-classical electric dipole approximation. The RWA resonance profile, and a series of exactly calculated two-level model spectra, are used to investigate some single- and multi-photon spectral effects due to permanent dipoles and static fields, relative to the atomic problem (no permanent dipoles). These effects include the occurrence of even as well as odd photon transitions. Permanent dipole moments can cause narrowing of the resonances, oscillatory fringes around the resonances as a function of frequency, and decreases in the molecule-EMF coupling, relative to the atomic results. Comparisons with exact two-level model spectra are used to study the validity of the RWA results and indicate that several features, such as dynamic backgrounds and shifts of the resonance frequencies from the weak EMF limits of {dollar}\\omega\\sbsp{lcub}\\rm res{rcub}{lcub}\\rm N{rcub}{dollar} = {dollar}\\Delta{dollar}E/N, N = 1,2,3, dots, are missing in the RWA spectra as the coupling increases.;Perturbative corrections to the RWA absorption spectra and the full widths at half maxima for the resonances are derived, neglecting static fields, and used to investigate and explain the effects missing in the RWA; the RWA resonance profile is a zeroth plus first order result obtainable from a time-independent Floquet Hamiltonian secular equation. The usefulness and validity of the perturbative corrections are investigated and it is concluded that these corrections are not useful computationally past second order. However, the corrections are useful in understanding some of the deficiencies of the RWA. These include the shifts of the N-photon resonance positions to low frequency, with respect to {dollar}\\Delta{dollar}E/N, that can occur for molecules with non-zero permanent dipoles; the shift is always to high frequency for atoms. A series of exact model calculations, for "giant dipole" molecules, is also used to discuss the effects of permanent dipole moments on spectra and to establish comparisons with the recent literature on the subject.
A rotating-wave approximation (RWA) is developed to describe the interaction of a two-level system, which has permanent dipole moments, with two pulsed lasers. The RWA expressions for the time-dependent populations of the molecular states are applied to model laser-molecule interactions and tested by comparison with exact results. The results are used to discuss the pulsed-laser phase control of molecular excitation through the interplay of competing one- and two-photon resonances involving the effects of a nonzero difference d between the permanent dipoles of the two states involved in the transition; the competition vanishes if d=0.