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Optics Letters

Unipolar subcycle pulse-driven nonresonant excitation of quantum systems

Rostislav M. Arkhipov, A. V. Pakhomov, Mikhail V. Arkhipov, Ihar Babushkin, Ayhan Demircan, Uwe Morgner, Nikolay N. Rosanov

Published Feb 25, 2019• 90 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The interaction of subcycle pulses with quantum systems is considered when the pulse duration becomes much smaller than the timescales of electron oscillations. We show analytically that the interaction process in this case is governed by the electric pulse area. The efficient nonresonant excitation of quantum systems by subcycle pulses with a high degree of unipolarity is demonstrated. The results are confirmed by direct numerical solution of multilevel Bloch equations.

DOI
10.1364/ol.44.001202

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It is shown that not only multicycle resonant pulses with zero electric area, but also nonresonant unipolar pulses can be used to efficiently excite quantum transitions in a medium. Arguments are presented in favor of the advantages of unipolar pulses for excitation of quantum systems in comparison with resonant radiation. A simple relationship has been found showing that in order to compare the effects of unipolar half-cycle and resonant multicycle pulses on atomic systems. It shows that it is necessary to compare the electric area of ??a unipolar pulse and the area of ??the envelope of a bipolar pulse, rather than their energies. Keywords: unipolar pulses, electric pulse area, pulse area, extremely short pulses, attosecond pulses.
In this letter, excitation of discrete levels in a quantum system is considered, when the duration of the driving pulse is changed from multicycle to ultrashort half-cycle regime. It is shown that, as the number of optical cycles decreases, the system passes from the periodic-driven regime to the “kick-driven” action. In both cases the effect depends on the pulse area. However for subcycle pulses the area is equal to the time integral of the field strength, whereas for multicycle pulses it is determined by the time integral of the pulse envelope. The interference of the envelope pulse area and the electric pulse area and its possible manifestations in experiments are discussed.