Canadian Journal of Physics
Local driving field and the existence of a coherent mode in a system of driven two-level atoms
Haider R. Zaidi
Abstract
Using a diagram technique, the equations of motion for the density matrix and the field inside the medium are derived for a system of driven two-level atoms. It is pointed out that these equations do not necessarily imply that the local driving field is perfectly coherent even if the external field is. In fact, by calculating the emission spectrum, it is shown that the coherent-scattering component acquires a small nonzero width in the strong-field region. It is concluded that the local driving field is only quasi-coherent. The physical origin of this effect lies in the peculiar nature of resonant interaction between two atoms. The results are compared with the previously obtained results for the foreign gas broadening type of collisions. It is found that there are qualitative as well as quantitative differences between the two results.