Absorption properties of a driven Doppler-broadened ladder system with hyperfine structure

Abstract

We have studied the absorption spectrum of a Doppler-broadened ladder system, where the highest level is coupled into two middle hyperfine sublevels by a strong coherent field. We find that, when the system is considered as homogeneous, either two or three spectral components are observed, depending on the detuning of the coherent field. But when the velocity distribution of atoms is considered, we can always observe one electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) window with high dispersion. So the atomic hyperfine structure cannot be an impediment for obtaining EIT.