Rabi Oscillations

Enamullah Enamullah, Vipin Kumar, Upendra Kumar +1 more

Graphene has been theoretically shown to exhibit anomalous Rabi oscillations (AROs) far from resonance in addition to conventional Rabi oscillations close to resonance (classical light frequency matches particle-hole frequency). The ARO has been attributed to the pseudospin degree of freedom that is unique to graphene-like systems. In this work, we show the same phenomenon also occurs in the single-photon limit or even in a vacuum. This is to be expected for conventional Rabi oscillations; however, the prediction that AROs also occur in the single-photon situation means that this notion of ARO is robust and not an artifact of approximations. We also study collapse and revival of both conventional and AROs in response to a coherent radiation field and extract the collapse and revival times in both cases.

P. Stehle

Andrzej J. Maciejewski, Maria Przybylska, Tomasz Stachowiak

Rolf H. Binder, Markus Lindberg

Optical Rabi oscillations in atomic two-level systems and excitonic Rabi oscillations in two-band semiconductors are already well established. In contrast to two-level (or two-band) Rabi oscillations, three-level (or three-band) Rabi oscillations offer a rich variety of oscillation dynamics involving both radiative and nonradiative (Raman) transitions. We analyze excitonic three-band Rabi oscillations in semiconductor quantum wells and study, in particular, the role of band-coupling effects and Coulomb effects.

Galina A. Nemova

K. V. Shandarova, Christian E. Rüter, Detlef Kip +4 more

We demonstrate spatial Rabi oscillations in optical waveguide arrays. Adiabatic transitions between extended Floquet-Bloch modes associated with different bands are stimulated by periodic modulation of the photonic lattice in the propagation direction. When the stimulating modulation also carries transverse momentum, the transition becomes indirect, equivalent to phonon-assisted Rabi oscillations. In solid state physics such indirect Rabi oscillations necessitate coherent phonons and hence they have never been observed. Our experiments suggest that phonon-assisted Rabi oscillations are observable also with Bose-Einstein condensates, as well as with other wave systems-where coherence can be maintained for at least one period of the Rabi oscillation.