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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Coherent excitation by asymmetric pulses

Nikolay V. Vitanov, P. L. Knight

Published May 14, 1995• 29 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that any pulse with a time-asymmetric envelope and a constant non-zero detuning excites a two-level quantum system with a probability of nearly one-half provided the pulse is very asymmetric, adiabatic in the slowly rising part of its envelope, sudden in the steep part and the peak Rabi frequency is much greater than the detuning. Three particular cases are considered analytically: the asymmetric hyperbolic-secant, the Bambini-Berman and the exponential pulse, which illustrate the general conclusions. The results are applied to a special three-level 'vee' system whose two transitions are driven by two asymmetric laser pulses of the same Rabi frequencies and the same detunings. Analysis shows that if such a system is prepared initially in its ground state, effective population depletion of this state can be achieved, the results being quite insensitive to variations in the Rabi frequency and the detuning.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/28/9/025

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It is shown that any pulse with a time-asymmetric envelope and a constant non-zero detuning excites a two-level quantum system with a probability of nearly one-half provided the pulse is very asymmetric, adiabatic in the slowly rising part of its envelope, sudden in the steep part and the peak Rabi frequency is much greater than the detuning. Three particular cases are considered analytically: the asymmetric hyperbolic-secant, the Bambini-Berman and the exponential pulse, which illustrate the general conclusions. The results are applied to a special three-level 'vee' system whose two transitions are driven by two asymmetric laser pulses of the same Rabi frequencies and the same detunings. Analysis shows that if such a system is prepared initially in its ground state, effective population depletion of this state can be achieved, the results being quite insensitive to variations in the Rabi frequency and the detuning.
By constructing a vector model we study the coherent dynamics of a special three-level quantum system--one with equal detunings and equal Rabi frequencies. This three-level problem can be fully related to a two-level problem. We find that complete population depletion can be achieved even in the case of constant nonzero detunings when the three-level system is prepared initially in the common level of the two transitions. Complete population depletion with constant detunings can also occur in other odd-number multilevel systems. An explanation in terms of an equivalent resonant excitation is presented.
In a recent paper, Bambini and Berman [A. Bambini and P. R. Berman, Phys. Rev. A 23, 2496 (1981)] presented analytic solutions to a certain family of coherent-coupling pulses for a two-level system. They show, for nonresonant temporally asymmetric members of the class, that there are no solutions corresponding to vanishing transition probabilities. In this Comment, we examine the problem in greater generality and demonstrate that this property is the norm for asymmetric pulses, and that a vanishing transition probability is possible only if severely overdetermined conditions are satisfied.
The coherent superposition of states in degenerate quantum systems is investigated using detuned laser pulses in which the Rabi frequencies are time-dependent, and the pulse area is zero. In this study, a quantum system with an arbitrary number of degenerate states in the ground set as well as an arbitrary number of degenerate states in the exciting set is considered. We assume that all states in the ground set are coupled to the excited states using laser pulses such that the pulse area of Rabi frequency is zero, and all of them have the same time dependence. It is also assumed that all laser pulses are in a non-resonant condition with Bohr transitions, and all detunings are the same. We will show that by applying the appropriate temporal dependence for the pulses and the appropriate rate for the detunings, the population can be transferred from an arbitrary superposition from the ground states to a desired superposition from the excited states.
We present an analytically exactly solvable two-state quantum model, in which the coupling has a hyperbolic-tangent temporal shape and the frequency detuning is constant. The exact solution is expressed in terms of associated Legendre functions. An interesting feature of this model is that the excitation probability does not vanish, except for zero pulse area or zero detuning; this feature is attributed to the asymmetric pulse shape. Two limiting cases are considered. When the coupling rises very slowly, it is nearly linear and the tanh model reduces to the shark model introduced earlier. When the coupling rises very quickly, the tanh model reduces to the Rabi model, which assumes a rectangular pulse shape and hence a sudden switch on. Because of its practical significance, we have elaborated the asymptotics of the solution in the Rabi limit, and we have derived the next terms in the asymptotic expansion, which deliver the corrections to the amplitude and the phase of the Rabi oscillations due to the finite rise time of the coupling.
In this research study, we derive the exact solutions of the Bloch equations describing the dynamics of a two-level atom with dephasing. In the two-level atom, a strong laser pump couples a ground state to an upper excited state with a time-dependent Rabi-frequency. The exact solutions are given for the atomic population inversion and the real and imaginary parts of the coherence while the input pulse is an asymmetric hyperbolic cosine form. Additionally, the system is under a chirped detuning. The method of solving the Bloch equations analytically is a very tedious part of the research, and as far as we know, there are few exact solutions available in this field. Hence, our solutions might be of great interest to various research areas, including nuclear magnetic resonance, where analytical solutions to the Bloch equations play a major role in the study of the information on the state of the medium as determined by the NMR signals.
We present an analytically exactly soluble two-state model, in which a hyperbolic-secant-shaped pulsed interaction has a phase jump of $\ensuremath{\phi}$ at the time of its maximum. The detuning has a constant part and a hyperbolic-tangent chirp term. For $\ensuremath{\phi}=0$, this model reduces to the Demkov-Kunike model, which in turn contains as particular cases three other well-known models: the Rosen-Zener, Allen-Eberly, and Bambini-Berman models. A nonzero $\ensuremath{\phi}$ induces dramatic changes in the transition probability, ranging from complete population inversion to complete population return. The analytic results are particularly instructive in the adiabatic limit and demonstrate that complete population inversion can always occur for a suitable choice of $\ensuremath{\phi}$. The jump phase $\ensuremath{\phi}$ can therefore be used as a control parameter for the two-state transition probability.