Physical Review A
Optical transient signal induced by strong fluctuating pulses
Vladimir Finkelstein, P. R. Berman
Abstract
The coherent transient signal emitted when a sample of two-level atoms is irradiated by a sequence of two fluctuating pulses is discussed. The pulses have bandwidth ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{c}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. They are correlated with one another, and have a relative delay time ${\mathit{t}}_{12}$. It is shown that for strong excitation pulses the transient signal, as a function of ${\mathit{t}}_{12}$, can exhibit a peak of width of order ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\tau}}}_{\mathit{c}}$. This peak is found to disappear when the Doppler width of the atomic ensemble becomes sufficiently large, in qualitative agreement with existing experimental data.