Probe absorption spectra for driven atomic systems in a narrow bandwidth squeezed vacuum
M. Bosticky, Z. Ficek, Bryan J. Dalton · Physical Review A · 1996
The behavior of a three level atom in a cascade configuration with the lower transition coherently driven and also coupled to a narrow bandwidth squeezed vacuum field is studied. A master equation treatment based on dressed atom states is used and expressions for probe absorption spectra are obtained via linear response theory and the quantum regression theorem. The expressions obtained also apply to the broad bandwidth squeezed vacuum case. Numerical studies of the modifications caused by the finite squeezed vacuum bandwidth to the Mollow and Autler-Townes probe absorption spectra are made for the case where the squeezed vacuum field center frequency and the driving laser frequency coincide and where upper transition relaxation terms are ignored. The squeezed vacuum source is assumed to be a degenerate parametric amplifier for the numerical calculations. Cases where the driving laser is resonant and detuned are examined. The spectral features are sensitively dependent on the phase of the squeezed vacuum field for a given driving laser phase. Dispersive features in the Mollow probe absorption spectrum can become absorptive, and vice versa. It is found in the probe absorption spectra that for certain choices of the squeezed vacuum phase lines narrower than for the broadband squeezed vacuum are obtained in the finite bandwidth situation. In both the Mollow and Autler-Townes spectra features narrower than for the normal vacuum case are obtained when the laser field is detuned, and in the Autler-Townes case this occurs for resonance also. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.