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Optics and Spectroscopy

Microscopic derivation of kinetic equations for interacting optical two-level systems

A. R. Kessel, Vladimir Alexandrovich Popov

Published Feb 1, 2000• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Kinetic equations are derived for optical two-level atoms interacting with a molecular subsystem treated as a thermostat. It is assumed that the kinetics is determined by the electric dipole interaction perturbed by the thermal motion. Dynamic parts of the kinetic equations coincide with the corresponding terms of optical Bloch equations, whereas nonlinear relaxation and shift terms have the specific form and are absent in the phenomenological generalized Bloch equations. It is shown that the relaxation kinetics can be substantially different from the exponential one and depends on the initial state of the system. In particular, the inversion relaxation is frozen at small deviations from the equilibrium. The possibility of observation of the optical bistability is discussed.

DOI
10.1134/1.626784

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Kinetic equations are derived for optical two-level atoms interacting with a molecular subsystem treated as a thermostat. It is assumed that the kinetics is determined by the electric dipole interaction perturbed by the thermal motion. Dynamic parts of the kinetic equations coincide with the corresponding terms of optical Bloch equations, whereas nonlinear relaxation and shift terms have the specific form and are absent in the phenomenological generalized Bloch equations. It is shown that the relaxation kinetics can be substantially different from the exponential one and depends on the initial state of the system. In particular, the inversion relaxation is frozen at small deviations from the equilibrium. The possibility of observation of the optical bistability is discussed.
The nine (9) elements of the density matrix of a general three-level atom interacting with a classically described linearly polarized light are parameterized by eight (8) variables related to the populations of the atomic levels, and the coherences (interference effects) between the levels. The dynamical equations of these eight parameters (that is, the optical Bloch equations for a general three-level atom) are derived under the electric dipole as well as the rotating wave approximations, and under the assumption that the matrix elements of the atomic electric dipole are all real. The general optical Bloch equations so derived are shown to contain the well-known optical Bloch equations for three-level atoms in the , and cascade configurations as well as those for two-level atoms as special cases. Expressing the interaction of light with a three-level atom in all possible configurations as well as with a two-level atom by a single set of generalized optical Bloch equations is the main result of this work.
The results of numeric calculation of population kinetics of resonant levels for atoms in the non-rectangular form laser pulse on the basis of the modified Bloch equations are presented. Cited equations describe an interaction between two-level atoms ensemble and resonant radiation with an account of the atomic dipole-dipole interaction. It has been found for a case of ch-1laser pulse a strengthen possibility of manifestation of the internal optical bistability effect special features in the temporary dynamics of populations for the atomic resonant levels under adiabatic slow changing the acting field intensity in comparison with a case of the rectangular form pulses
We address a two-level system in an environment interacting with an electromagnetic field in the dipole approximation. The resonant optical bistability induced by local-field effects is studied by considering the relationship between the population difference and the excitation field. The diversity of various systems is included by accounting for system self-action via the surface part of Green's dyadic in the general form. The bistability condition and the exact solution of the steady-state optical Bloch equations at the absolute bistability threshold are derived analytically.
We address a two level system in an environment interacting with the electromagnetic field in the dipole approximation. The resonant optical bistability induced by local-field effects is studied by considering the relationship between the population difference and the excitation field. The diversity of various systems is included by accounting for the system self-action via the surface part of the Green's dyadic in the general form. The bistability condition and the exact solution of the steady state optical Bloch equations at the absolute bistability threshold are derived analytically.
In a recent experiment [ DevoeR. G.BrewerR. G., Phys. Rev. Lett.50, 1269 ( 1983)], it was found that the optical Bloch equations could not satisfactorily explain the signal that was observed for free-induction decay in the impurity ion cyrstal Pr3+:LaF3. Several theories have been proposed to explain this failure of the Bloch equations. In this paper, the general validity conditions for the optical Bloch equations are examined within the limits of a Markovian relaxation model. The specific problem to be considered is the interaction of an optical field with two-level atoms. The atoms undergo relaxation as a result of coupling to a perturber bath that, itself, is negligibly affected by the relaxation process. First, a simple decay-parameter model is assumed for the relaxation of atomic density-matrix elements. Such a model is found to lead to a set of generalized Bloch equations of which the conventional Bloch equations form a subset. Subsequently, more-realistic models for relaxation in both vapors and solids are considered within the limits of the impact approximation (i.e., the duration of a fluctuation can be viewed as instantaneous with respect to all relevant time scales in the problem). It is found that, even in the impact (Markovian) approximation, the generalized Bloch equations cannot be expected to provide an adequate description of relaxation, owing to effects in which a fluctuation-induced change in the atomic transition frequency persists between fluctuations. In vapors this frequency shift is produced by velocity-changing collisions that change the atomic resonance frequency (as seen in the laboratory frame), whereas in solids it is produced by local-field fluctuations. The limiting conditions under which one can expect both the generalized and the conventional Bloch equations to retain their validity are explored.
We derive a set of optical Bloch equations (OBEs) directly from the minimal-coupling Hamiltonian density of the bound-state quantum electrodynamics (bound-state QED). Such optical Bloch equations are beyond the former widely-used ones due to that there is no electric dipole approximation (EDA) on the minimal-coupling Hamiltonian density of the bound-state QED. Then our optical Bloch equations can describe a two-level atom interacting with a monochromatic light of arbitrary wavelength, which are suitable to study the spectroscopy and the Rabi oscillations of two-level atoms in X-ray laser beams since that the wavelength of X-ray is close to an atom to make the electric dipole approximation (EDA) invalid.