Investigation of the dynamic Stark effect in a J=010 three-level system. II. Theoretical description

Abstract

We have calculated the steady-state intensity of fluorescence emitted from the middle and upper levels of a three-level (J=010) atomic ladder system subjected to a weak probe laser tuned to the transition between the lower two levels and a strong laser tuned to the transition between the upper two levels. This configuration of strong and probe lasers is the reverse of that used in previous experimental studies of three-level ladder systems. The configuration studied in this paper allowed the investigation of the population of both levels coupled by the strong laser. In order to predict in detail the results of a real, nonideal experiment carried out on a J=010 three-level system in a barium atomic beam, the theoretical model must include the effects of the experimental geometry, Zeeman degeneracy, hyperfine structure, and isotope structure. The experiment and the model were restricted to the case where both lasers have the same linear polarization. The method of Ben-Reuven and Klein was used to find an analytic solution to the Bloch equations for the three-level system. Without an analytic or semianalytic solution, the extension of the theory to describe a real experiment would have required a prohibitive amount of computer time. Show more