Four-wave mixing in the diamond configuration in an atomic vapor

Abstract

We present measurements of the resonance structure for nondegenerate four-wave mixing (4WM) in the diamond configuration in a warm atomic vapor of rubidium. We show that a narrow sub-Doppler feature exists and can be understood as a result of velocity-class selection. We measure the efficiency of the 4WM process and show it to be on the order of $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$. Our observations are consistent with the results of a theoretical treatment based on the semiclassical Maxwell-Bloch equations for the system with the appropriate coupling values derived from the experimental values in Rb.