Collisional and saturation effects in multiphoton processes in the field of two pumps

Abstract

The nonlinear response of a two-level system interacting with two pump beams of different frequencies is studied with a view to examine several recent experiments on nonlinear mixing of high orders, instabilities in homogeneously broadened lasers, and holes in homogeneous lines. Such a nonlinear response is calculated with use of the continued fractions given in our earlier work [J.Opt. Soc. Am. 81, 164 (1984)]. Saturation effects lead to the appearance of many structures at submultiples of the Rabi frequency. The origin of these subharmonics in nonlinear-response functions is explained. It is shown that collisions not only lead to hole burning at the line center for weak fields but can also lead in moderate fields to the appearance of structures at subharmonics of the Rabi frequency. Existence of collision-induced coherences similar to those in four-wave mixing is shown in six-wave mixing. Exact results for the degenerate nonlinear mixing of arbitrary order are presented for arbitrary values of field strengths. Saturating fields create holes at the line center of such nonlinear mixing signals. Gain profiles of two modes symmetrically displaced from line center are also given. Numerical results, with complete account of saturation and collisions, for a variety of nonlinear-response functions are presented.