Stimulated Raman amplification spectra in a four-level atomic system interacting with a strong bichromatic field

Abstract

We have considered the stimulated Raman spectra arising from interaction of a four-level atom with a strong bichromatic field and a weak signal field simultaneously. The atomic system consists of two upper excited states ‖3〉 and ‖4〉 and two lower states ‖1〉 and ‖2〉, where the metastable state ‖2〉 is depleted through the action of two strong laser fields operating between the states ‖2〉↔‖4〉 and ‖2〉↔‖3〉, respectively. Using a model Hamiltonian, where all the free and interacting fields are quantized, and the Green function method in the limit of high photon densities of both laser fields, we have studied stimulated two-photon processes near the frequencies ±ω≊ω21≊ω41 −ωa≊ω31 −ωb for the ‖1〉→‖2〉 electric dipole forbidden transition describing physical processes, where one photon of the signal field with frequency ω41(ω31) is absorbed while a photon of the laser field with frequency ωa(ωb) is emitted and vice versa; ωij refers to an atomic transition frequency between the states ‖i〉 and ‖j〉. The spectral function for the stimulated two-photon processes consists of a central peak at the frequency ω=ω21, which has a delta function distribution indicating the stability of the mode in question, and three pairs of sidebands, where one pair of sidebands is induced by each laser field, respectively, while the third pair of sidebands is induced by both laser fields simultaneously. The intensities of the sidebands are always negative indicating that strong amplification (stimulated emission) takes place at the corresponding frequencies. The computed resonance and off-resonance spectra are graphically presented and discussed. When a classical description for both laser fields is used, the spectral function is found to describe one pair of sidebands, which is induced by both laser fields simultaneously; this classical result is graphically presented and compared with those obtained when the fields are quantized. It is shown that the results obtained when the fields are quantized and in the limit of high photon densities describe the classical as well as the quantum nature of the photon fields which is lost in the classical picture. The effect of the quantum nature or, equivalently, the boson character of the photon is to split the ‘‘classical’’ spectrum described by one pair of sidebands into three pairs, whose sum of relative intensities is equal to that of the original pair derived classically.