Coherent optical interaction of a multilevel system with fluctuating laser fields

Yehiam Prior*, Israel Schek, Joshua Jortner

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of stochastic laser phase fluctuations on nonlinear optical phenomena are investigated within the phase-diffusion model. Averaged equations of motion are derived in the limit of infinitely short correlation times and the results are applied to multiphoton absorption and to four-wave mixing. The effect of the stochastic phase fluctuations is shown to be equivalent to a T2 dephasing process, and a procedure is described for the inclusion of this equivalence in many nonlinear-optical problems. When a given mode contributes n photons to a multiphoton absorption process, its contribution to the width of the multiphoton transition is n2 times its own stochastic width. When correlated lasers are used as the excitation sources in four-wave-mixing experiments, (new) stochastic-fluctuation-induced extra resonances in four-wave mixing (SFIER4) will be observed, in complete analogy to the extra resonances induced by collisions [pressure-induced extra resonances in form-wave mixing (PIER4)].

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3775-3782
Number of pages8
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume31
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1985

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