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Title: Degenerate four-wave mixing spectra in a two-level atomic system with phase-modulated time-delayed coherent fields

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
;  [1]
  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 (United States)

We study phase-conjugate degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) in an optically pumped, two-level atomic system (the 3s {sup 2}S{sub 1/2}, F=2, m{sub F}=2{yields}3p {sup 2}P{sub 3/2}, F=3, m{sub F}=3 transition in a diffuse, collision-free, thermal beam of sodium) using phase-modulated laser beams. In this investigation, we study the detailed line shape of the four-wave mixing signal as a function of the temporal delay between the probe field and the pump fields at different intensities of the cw pump waves and modulation frequencies. We show that phase modulation of the pump and probe beams leads to strong amplitude modulation of the phase-conjugate beam and report excellent agreement between our experimental observations of the DFWM spectra and the results of numerical calculations. Our numerical results suggest an enhancement of the 'local' DFWM signal when the sidebands of the phase-modulated laser are resonant with dressed-state transitions, but that this resonance is less obvious in the total signal generated. We also show that the complex line shapes depend sensitively upon the delay of the probe beam, with the peak DFWM signal occurring when the probe beam is advanced compared to the pump beam.

OSTI ID:
20718212
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 72, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.72.023813; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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