Expressions for polarization and population difference of a quantum system in the modulated optical field at the modulation frequency exceeding the transition line width have been obtained in the form of the Fourier series. The characteristic frequency of the system, or the Rabi frequency, has been determined numerically. It depends not only on the intensity of the carrier wave and the detuning magnitude but also on depth and frequency of modulation. The computational technique is applicable both for amplitude and phase modulation.
Expressions for polarization and population difference of a quantum system in the modulated optical field at the modulation frequency exceeding the transition line width have been obtained in the form of the Fourier series. The characteristic frequency of the system, or the Rabi frequency, has been determined numerically. It depends not only on the intensity of the carrier wave and the detuning magnitude but also on depth and frequency of modulation. The computational technique is applicable both for amplitude and phase modulation.
Interaction between a two-level system and strong nonmonochromatic electromagnetic field has been the focus of attention of the laser technique and fiber optics for a long time. The influence of the modulated optical signal on the active medium, when the amplitude and phase (or frequency) vary arbitrary in time, is important in many problems, such as interaction of ultrashort pulses with the resonant amplifier, change of the line shape, the emission perturbation theory, self-focusing of light, etc. In this article, a new computational procedure is proposed for a two-level system in the strong harmonically modulated optical field. Expressions for polarization and population difference of a quantum system have been obtained in the form of the Fourier series. The characteristic frequency has been determined numerically. It depends not only upon the intensity of the carrier wave and the detuning magnitude but also upon the depth and frequency of modulation. The computational technique is applicable both for amplitude and phase modulation. Ill. 6, bibl. 3 (in English; summaries in English, Russian and Lithuanian).
We present a detailed experimental study of the frequency-modulated excitation of a two-level atom, using a microwave field to drive transitions between two Rydberg Stark states of potassium. In the absence of a modulation the interaction is the standard model of the Rabi problem, producing sinusoidal oscillations of the population between the two states. In the presence of a frequency modulation of the interacting field, however, the time evolution of the system is significantly modified, producing square wave oscillations of the population, sinusoidal oscillations at a different frequency, or even sinusoidal oscillations built up in a series of stair steps. The three responses described above are each found in a different regime for the frequency of the modulation with respect to the unmodulated Rabi frequency: the low-, high-, and intermediate-frequency regimes, respectively.
For Rabi frequencies comparable to, or even larger than, the transition frequency of a two-level system, the regime of extreme nonlinear optics is reached. Here, we give an overview of the radiated light intensity as a function of carrier frequency of light, transition frequency, Rabi frequency, spectrometer frequency, as well as of the shape and duration of the exciting optical pulses. The graphical representations reveal an amazing complexity and beauty of the nonlinear optical response. Analytical results within the ``square-wave approximation'' qualitatively reproduce many of the intricate features of the exact numerical calculations.
The propagation of a weakly modulated light beam through a nonlinear material is treated. The optical field representing such a beam consists of a strong carrier-frequency component and two weak, symmetrically displaced sidebands that combine to form a field, which may be purely amplitude modulated (AM), frequency modulated (FM), or some combination of these two modulation forms. It is shown that, for any optical nonlinearity, two modulation forms exist that have the property that the form of modulation is invariant under propagation of the beam. If a modulation form other than one of these natural modes is injected into the nonlinear medium, the modulation form will change as the beam propagates, asymptotically approaching the natural mode that experiences the lower attenuation. Explicit expressions for these natural modes are presented for the case in which the nonlinear medium can be modeled as a collection of two-level atoms. For the special case of an on-resonance pump beam, the natural modes correspond to pure amplitude modulation and pure frequency modulation. This formalism provides a general description of saturation spectroscopy for both AM and FM fields. Formulas are derived for the rate at which a pure FM beam is converted to an AM beam owing to its interaction with a two-level atomic medium. We also consider the variation that is due to propagation of the depth of modulation of an AM wave interacting resonantly with two-level atoms. The formalism predicts the existence of spectral features whose shape depends sensitively on the internal relaxation processes of the material. Experimental spectra are presented for ruby, alexandrite, and fluorescein in glass and are interpreted.
In the article, for limited system conditions that form the spatial structure of the field, the attenuation processes of wave packets of finite amplitude are considered. The line width of the wave field may be the result of the dissipative processes (in a quantum system it is inverse of the lifetime of energy levels) or the result of reactive processes (in classical waveguide systems this is the spectral width of the packet). In the case of filling the waveguide with an active two-level medium, a description is possible using a quasiclassical model of the interaction of the field and particles. In this case, the quantum-mechanical description of the medium is combined with the classical representation of the field. Here, the Rabi frequency plays an important role, which determines the probabilities of induced radiation or absorption of field quanta and the oscillatory change in population inversion (nutation). Depending on the relationship between the Rabi frequency and the line width of the wave packet, the process can change the nature of the field behavior. In strong fields or with a significant population inversion, the line width can be neglected, while the field energy density is quite high. In this case, one should expect noticeable nutations of population inversions with different frequencies corresponding to the local Rabi frequency in different regions of the waveguide, the interference of which will determine the oscillatory behavior of the wave field. At a low level of electric field intensity or a slight population inversion, the mode of changing the field amplitude becomes monotonic. Plasma field damping (Landau damping) is considered. The role of population inversion is assumed by a quantity proportional to the derivative with respect to velocity of the electron distribution function. If the spectral width of the packet is small, the process of wave attenuation acquires a characteristic oscillatory form due to the exchange of energy between the wave and the plasma electrons captured by its field. The attenuation of wide packets is almost monotonic with the formation of a characteristic “plateau” in the vicinity of the phase velocity of the wave on the electron velocity distribution function.
Frequency-modulated spectra of coherently driven quantum systems are calculated using the density-matrix formulation. The modulated spectra are shown to be related to the two-time correlation functions of the polarization operators of the system. In the limit of modulation frequencies small compared to the width of the spectral features under study, the in-phase signal (quadrature signal) is shown to be related to the derivative of absorption (second derivative of dispersion) in the absence of any modulation. Modulation spectra in strong fields are calculated explicitly for two-level systems; such spectra are shown to yield useful information concerning light shifts and Rabi splittings. The influence of laser temporal fluctuations on such modulation spectra is also discussed.