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Physical Review A

Asymmetries between absorption and stimulated emission in driven three-level systems

Hwang Lee, Yuri V. Rostovtsev, Marlan O. Scully

Published Nov 6, 2000• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a physical picture explaining the asymmetries between absorption and stimulated emission occurring in the driven three-level systems. Based on a dressed-state picture, we obtain transition rates for absorption and stimulated emission separately, and show that the cancellation of absorption in the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$- and V-type systems are originated from different physical mechanisms. Furthermore, a simple analogy can be applied to cascade-type systems to show the absorption enhancement at two-photon resonance.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.62.063804

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We present a physical picture explaining the asymmetries between absorption and stimulated emission occurring in the driven three-level systems. Based on a dressed-state picture, we obtain transition rates for absorption and stimulated emission separately, and show that the cancellation of absorption in the \ensuremathΛ\ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremathΛ- and V-type systems are originated from different physical mechanisms. Furthermore, a simple analogy can be applied to cascade-type systems to show the absorption enhancement at two-photon resonance.
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Studies the competition between absorption and stimulated emission induced by two laser fields at low intensities interacting on a two-photon resonance with a three-level atom. The induced spectrum into the ground state consists of a peak whose height and asymmetry depend strongly on the detuning. The spectra arising from the emission of a laser photon by the excited state consists of two peaks describing stimulated emission and induced absorption, respectively, where the former dominates the latter for small values of the Rabi frequencies but for higher ones, they cancel each other out.
We investigate the steady-state spontaneous emission spectrum of a three-level atom driven by two coherent fields and the absorption spectrum of a weak probe passing through a collection of such driven atoms. We find that the fluorescence spectrum is strongly affected by the decay rates of all the levels involved in the atomic evolution and not just by the decay parameters of the specific transition whose emission spectrum is being monitored. In particular, the spectral components can acquire very different widths and peak heights relative to the case of the standard resonance fluorescence in which a two-level system is driven by a single near-resonant field. An external probe signal passing through the gas of three-level atoms may be absorbed or amplified, as in the standard two-level case, but under specific operating conditions, amplification (or absorption) occurs over the entire range where the atomic response is appreciable. In this case the existence of amplification or absorption is controlled solely by the population difference between two dressed states of the system. We provide numerical results in support of our arguments for arbitrary values of the atomic and field parameters and also develop an analytic description in the limit of strong driving fields that leads to explicit line-shape and linewidth formulas.
The author has considered the interference spectra arising from the competition between absorption and stimulated emission processes, which have been induced by two laser fields operating at a two-photon resonance with a three-level atom in the ' Lambda ' configuration. In the low intensity limit of both laser fields, the induced spectrum in the ground state consists mainly of a peak, whose height and asymmetry depend strongly on the value of the detuning of the laser fields. In the absence of detuning, the height of the induced peak takes positive values implying that the physical process of absorption (attenuation) takes place, while at finite detunings the height of the peak becomes negative indicating the frequencies at which stimulated emission (amplification) is likely to occur. The spectra arising from the emission of a laser photon by the excited state consist of two peaks describing stimulated emission and induced absorption, respectively, where the former dominates the latter for small values of the Rabi frequencies but for higher ones, cancel each other out.
An analysis of a three-level system using time-dependent perturbation theory shows that two distinct photon-emission processes take place within such a system when stimulated optical emission occurs: one-and two-photon transitions. The two-photon transition consists of the emission of a stimulated photon followed by the absorption of a coherent pump photon. In three-level systems which possess a narrow pump level, two-photon transitions are dominant at high pump powers while the maser line is split into two lines due to the modulation of the wave function at an angular frequency determined by the rate of pumping. This might lead to the possibility of frequency-modulating the maser line. These results are extended qualitatively to include optical masers which possess broad pump-bands.
An analysis of a three-level system using time-dependent perturbation theory shows that two distinct photon-emission processes take place within such a system when stimulated optical emission occurs: one-and two-photon transitions. The two-photon transition consists of the emission of a stimulated photon followed by the absorption of a coherent pump photon. In three-level systems which possess a narrow pump level, two-photon transitions are dominant at high pump powers while the maser line is split into two lines due to the modulation of the wave function at an angular frequency determined by the rate of pumping. This might lead to the possibility of frequency-modulating the maser line. These results are extended qualitatively to include optical masers which possess broad pump-bands.