Propagation of laser pulses and coherent population transfer in dissipative three-level systems: An adiabatic dressed-state picture.

Abstract

The interaction of a pair of copropagating pulses with three-level \ensuremath{\Lambda}-type atoms is discussed in terms of time-dependent coupled and decoupled superpositions \ensuremath{\Vert}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}〉 of the lower levels. Due to the explicit time dependence of these states there is a nonadiabatic coupling between the ``bright'' state \ensuremath{\Vert}+〉 and the ``dark'' state \ensuremath{\Vert}-〉 in addition to the strong coupling between \ensuremath{\Vert}+〉 and the upper level \ensuremath{\Vert}a〉 . We show that under quasiadiabatic conditions and in the presence of decay from the upper level this coupling can be treated perturbatively and the Maxwell-Bloch equations can be solved analytically. With the help of such a perturbation approach, coherent population transfer and formstable laser pulse propagation are studied. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.