Analytic and numerical calculations for the propagational dependence of Rabi-Split resulting from a strong resonant pump and a coupled weak off-resonance probe are presented for a Lambda three-level atomic configuration. A semi-classical Maxwell-Bloch formulism was adopted for both the perturbational (using stationary phase and steepest descent asymptotic techniques) and the rigorous computational treatments. This calculation can be considered as a Double Self-Induced Transparency SIT' where the strong pump (multiple of 2n on-axis area) experiences coherent pulse break up, coherent self-focusing 2-4 and depletion as the weak probe (multiple of 0.02n area) cooperatively builds up. Different transition gain ratios (i.e., oscillator strength: p2w) are considered to insure that the weak probe does not get (a) delayed with respect to the pump or (b) get out of synchronization, and cease to overlap. The probe detuning can be as large as the input on-axis pump Rabi frequency. The interplay of nonlinear Raman gain action, dispersion and diffraction give rise concommitantly to a number of effects previously studied independently such as self-phase modulation, wave front encoding, transverse ring formation, self-focusing, quasi-trapping (when pump detuning is also allowed), and asymptotic three-level solitary waves.

Date Published: 20 November 1985
PDF: 18 pages
Proc. SPIE 0540, Southwest Conf on Optics '85, (20 November 1985); doi: 10.1117/12.976172

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0540:
Southwest Conf on Optics '85
Susanne C. Stotlar, Editor(s)