We investigate the absorption and dispersion of a probe field by a two-level atom driven by a strong external field and coupled to a single cavity mode. For moderate atom–field coupling the absorption spectrum contains ultrasharp lines, and the real part of the linear susceptibility changes rapidly at the Mollow sideband frequencies. For large coupling the absorption and dispersion spectra split into multiplets whose structures depend on the photon-number distribution of the cavity field. A large index of refraction accompanied by vanishing absorption is predicted.
A three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ scheme is proposed in order to achieve a large (resonant) index of refraction with vanishing absorption. This scheme is based on the selective population of one of the dressed states produced by a strong laser field. For modest values of the density and realistic atomic parameters the present scheme gives the index to absorption ratio $\ensuremath{\approx}2500.$ It is to be noted that an off-resonant two-level scheme can also give such a ratio but the index of refraction will be smaller. The present approach to index enhancement is not limited to weak fields, as is the case in some other schemes.
Refractive index enhancement accompanied by vanishing absorption in a four-level atomic system interacting with two control and two probe fields in a regime of four-wave mixing (FWM) has been predicted and studied in the present work. We analyzed the maximal index enhancement in the four-level FWM system and gave index estimates for a real atomic gas of
40K, taking into account its multilevel structure and collisional and Doppler broadenings at large atomic densities. We also discussed how vanishing absorption with no nearby amplification can be realized in a two species system, consisting of a four-level FWM and a two-level system, where the latter provides additional absorption for one of the probe fields. We numerically estimated the index change in a system composed of
40K and
39K gases.