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Acta Physica Sinica

Transient two-photon transitions excited by chirped pulse

Liqing Ren, Yang Yi-Da, Ying-Chun Wei

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In general cases of strong field excitation, the Stark effect has a significant influence on transient two-photon transitions, and the analytic description of this process is quite challenging. By combining analytical solutions and numerical simulations, the transient two-photon transition processes excited by weak and strong chirped pulses are systematically investigated, showing the important influences of parameters such as light field intensity, chirp factor, and detuning on the time-domain evolution of two-photon transition probabilities. Firstly, an approximate analytical expression is derived for the amplitude of the time-domain two-photon transition probability by using the second-order perturbation theory. This analytical solution indicates that the transient two-photon transition process under weak field excitation is similar to the Fresnel rectangular edge diffraction effect. As the light field intensity increases, the influence of the Stark effect on two-photon transitions also intensifies. Secondly, through a series of approximations, the approximate analytical solutions of the Schrödinger equation under strong field interactions are obtained. The analytical solutions show that the strong field Stark effect induces energy level to split, which disrupts the symmetry of the time-domain two-photon transition probability distribution, and its frequency domain process is similar to the “double-slit interference” effect. The research results indicate that the efficiency of population transfer during strong field excitation is closely related to the light field intensity, while the chirp factor can not only regulate the efficiency and time position of population transfer but also change the oscillation frequency of the population probability in the time domain. This work offers new insights into describing the time-domain evolution of the population probability under strong field excitation and lays a scientific basis for research on two-photon microscopy imaging.

DOI
10.7498/aps.74.20250879

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In general cases of strong field excitation, the Stark effect has a significant influence on transient two-photon transitions, and the analytic description of this process is quite challenging. By combining analytical solutions and numerical simulations, the transient two-photon transition processes excited by weak and strong chirped pulses are systematically investigated, showing the important influences of parameters such as light field intensity, chirp factor, and detuning on the time-domain evolution of two-photon transition probabilities. Firstly, an approximate analytical expression is derived for the amplitude of the time-domain two-photon transition probability by using the second-order perturbation theory. This analytical solution indicates that the transient two-photon transition process under weak field excitation is similar to the Fresnel rectangular edge diffraction effect. As the light field intensity increases, the influence of the Stark effect on two-photon transitions also intensifies. Secondly, through a series of approximations, the approximate analytical solutions of the Schrödinger equation under strong field interactions are obtained. The analytical solutions show that the strong field Stark effect induces energy level to split, which disrupts the symmetry of the time-domain two-photon transition probability distribution, and its frequency domain process is similar to the “double-slit interference” effect. The research results indicate that the efficiency of population transfer during strong field excitation is closely related to the light field intensity, while the chirp factor can not only regulate the efficiency and time position of population transfer but also change the oscillation frequency of the population probability in the time domain. This work offers new insights into describing the time-domain evolution of the population probability under strong field excitation and lays a scientific basis for research on two-photon microscopy imaging.
Abstract In this study, the nonresonant two-photon absorption process in a two-level atom, induced by a weak chirped pulse, is theoretically investigated in the frequency domain. An analytical expression of the wave function expressed by Fresnel functions is obtained, and the two-photon transition probability (TPTP) versus the integral bandwidth, spectral width, and chirp parameter is analyzed. The results indicate that the oscillation evolution of the TPTP result from quantum diffraction of the wave function, which can be explained by analogy with Fresnel diffraction from a wide slit in the spatial domain. Moreover, the ratio between the real and imaginary parts of the excited state wave function and, hence, the atomic polarization, can be controlled by the initial phase of the excitation pulse. In some special initial phase of the excitation pulse, the wave functions with purely real or imaginary parts can be obtained by measuring the population probability. This work provides a novel perspective for understanding the physical details of the interactions between atoms and chirped light pulses in the multiphoton process.
Abstract The effects of pulse chirping on the excitation and ionization process in hydrogen atoms are theoretically investigated by numerically solving the full time-dependent Schrödinger equation with a pseudospectral method. We specifically compare the dynamical results of single-photon resonant ionization (SRI) and two-photon resonant ionization (TRI) across laser intensities ranging from 10 12 to 10 14 W cm 2 . The ionization probabilities of SRI and TRI tend to exhibit opposite chirp dependent behaviors as the laser field changes from weak to strong, which are elucidated with the strong field approximation theory. Furthermore, the sensitivity of ionization probability to chirp can be suppressed at specific laser intensities when the laser field is synthesized by two-color resonant chirped pulses. Our study provides a basis for theoretical investigations into chirp effect on atomic photoionization, offering new insights into the coherent control of electron dynamics.
We have considered an analytical control of two-photon absorption process of atoms in the strong-field interaction regime. The experiment was performed on gaseous cesium atoms strongly interacting with a shaped laser-pulse from a femtosecond laser amplifier and a programmable pulse-shaper. When this shaped laser-pulse transfers the atomic population from the 6s ground state to the 8s excited state, we have found that both positively- and negatively-chirped laser pulses, compared with a Gaussian pulse, enhance this excitation in the strong-field regime of laser-atom interaction. This unusual phenomena is explained because the temporal shape of the laser intensity compensates the effect of dynamic Stark shift for the two-photon resonant condition to be optimally maintained. We provide analytic calculations using the strong-field phase matching, which show good agreement with the experiment.
The temporal evolution of atomic transition in a two-level system under the frequency-chirped pulse field and its dynamic analysis are discussed respectively by means of the density matrix equation and the method of Bloch vector model.The result shows that the population probability oscillates in time domain under the effects of frequency-chirped pulse.The dynamic evolution process of the Bloch vector indicates that the oscillation of the population probability reflects the physical transformation process among the population transfer,dispersion and absorption in the system.
A class of molecular two-photon processes, occurring under transient or steady-state conditions, is analyzed exactly for certain cases using a density-matrix formalism. Our results are relevant to the recently observed phenomena of transient coherent Raman beats and steady-state two-photon absorption of oppositely directed laser beams. Lowest-order perturbation theories have shown that these processes are insensitive to the Doppler effect, and consequently the linewidth is unaffected by Doppler broadening and by elastic collisions that change molecular velocity. The solutions presented here are of the same form for the Raman and two-photon problems and reveal significant power-dependent frequency shifts and line broadening that correct the ideal Doppler-free solutions. For the transient case, we assume a molecular three-level quantum structure that can be switched in or out of optical resonance with cw laser radiation by means of a pulsed dc Stark field, but the solutions also apply when resonant optical pulses are introduced. During the resonant condition when the Stark pulse is on, the three levels are prepared in coherent superposition, and during the nonresonant condition following the Stark pulse, the laser field(s) stimulates the coherently prepared sample in a transient two-photon process. One of these processes, the Ramanbeat effect, has been observed in forward scattering, but the second one, transient two-photon emission, should be observable in backward scattering. Bloch-like equations are derived for this three-level problem that facilitate an exact pulse solution for state preparation. Following the pulse, transient decay is well-approximated by a perturbation calculation. For the steady-state case, an exact solution is also obtained and is of interest for continuous-wave spectroscopy or for transient experiments requiring an initial preparation of quantum states, prior to Stark switching. These solutions exhibit a power-dependent line broadening and a frequency shift of magnitude $\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{\ensuremath{\Delta}({\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\beta}}^{2})}{({\ensuremath{\Delta}}^{2}+\frac{1}{{T}_{2}^{2}})}$, in agreement with our earlier estimate, where $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and $\ensuremath{\beta}$ are the Rabi flopping frequencies for the two intermediate transitions and $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is the off-resonance tuning behavior for one of them.
A nonperturbative analysis is given for an nnn-level atom or molecule dressed by a Stark field and in single-photon or multiphoton (near) resonant interaction with coherent optical field modes, which may be intense. All the field amplitudes and phases may have nonadiabatic time variation. New formulas for probability amplitudes of states with finite lifetimes are given for atom-field levels swept or optical Stark shifted through resonance or into close approach. One of these includes the Landau-Zener formula as a special case. Power broadening is contained in these formulas. They are useful for both weak- and strong-field interaction. Further, it is shown that many familiar single-photon coherent transient phenomena have their analogs in the intense-field and the multiphoton domains. Two new effects, pulse-shape dependence in final transition probability and population inversion due to the nonadiabatic passage of an asymmetric pulse, are demonstrated with numerical results for the process $\mathrm{Na}(3s)+2\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{Na}(5s)$. Finally, double resonance (single-photon and/or multiphoton) is analyzed, with discussion of adiabatic following and a derivation of a formula for level crossing. Generalization of an earlier procedure for solving the adiabatic eigenvalue problem of the whole atom-field system is given.