2550 Vol. 34, No.

12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B Research Article

Splitting of electromagnetically induced

absorption signal in a five-level V-type
atomic system
KHAIRUL ISLAM,1 AMITAVA BANDYOPADHYAY,1 BANKIM CHANDRA DAS,2 SATYAJIT SAHA,2
SANKAR DE,2 AND DIPANKAR BHATTACHARYYA3,*
1
Department of Physics, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, 731235 West Bengal, India
2
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, HBNI, 1/AF, Bidhannagar, Kolkata 700064, India
3
Santipur College, Santipur, Nadia, West Bengal 741404, India
*Corresponding author: bh.dipankar@gmail.com

Received 30 June 2017; revised 9 October 2017; accepted 9 October 2017; posted 25 October 2017 (Doc. ID 300884); published 15 November 2017

Electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) and velocity-selective transparency peaks are observed in the probe
absorption signal of V-type five-level atomic systems interacting with copropagating control and probe fields.
At high control beam intensity, a splitting of EIA occurs. The experiment shows similar results for both
87
Rb and 85 Rb isotopes at room temperature. A density matrix-based theoretical model of this five-level system
has been developed and solved numerically under steady-state condition. The simulated spectra agree quite well
with the experimental findings. An analytic expression for the probe response is derived and used to find out the
causes for the splitting of EIA. 2017 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (140.3460) Lasers; (270.1670) Coherent optical effects; (020.3690) Line shapes and shifts; (080.2710) Inhomogeneous
optical media; (020.4180) Multiphoton processes.

https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.34.002550

1. INTRODUCTION possible to create perfect and tripod systems specially for

The propagation of coherent probe fields through multilevel
atomic systems in the presence of strong control (pump) fields
has been one of the most widely studied areas in laser spectros-
copy. The choice of the level schemes would have a definite
impact on the outcome of such studies. The occurrence of
electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) [15] due to
atomic coherence and its role in probe pulse propagation
through an atomic vapor medium have been investigated
mostly in -type systems owing to the fact that EIT is most
easily formed in -type systems [6]. In the simplest case, a
-type system would have three levels: one upper energy level
and two ground levels [6]. The D1 transitions of alkali atoms
like cesium (Cs) and rubidium (Rb) form three-level systems
owing to the large separations between the two ground levels
as well as between the two excited levels [7,8]. However, there
are some limitations in three-level systems formed with D1
transition due to the presence of nuclear spin (i.e., I
32
for 87 Rb and I
52 for 85 Rb atoms), magnetic sublevels,
Penning ionization losses among identical Rb atoms, etc.
One requires a repump laser to compensate for the loss of atoms
in the other ground hyperfine level. There are reports of over-
coming these difficulties by using metastable He* atoms instead
of alkali atoms [9,10]. By using metastable He* atoms, it is
cascade and V-type systems. The ideal three-level V-type sys-
tem cannot be realized with the D1 transitions where sponta-
neous decay of population from the upper hyperfine levels to
both of the ground levels is allowed. It has been shown recently
that the addition of an extra ground level to a three-level V-type
system affects the population distribution among the different
energy levels drastically, thereby altering the probe absorption
spectra [11]. The alkali D2 transitions, due to the presence of
four upper hyperfine levels within the Doppler-broadened ab-
sorption profile of the transitions, are not ideal three-level
-type systems either. The addition of extra energy levels makes
the analysis complicated, but in reality, the multilevel systems
are the ones frequently encountered. Detailed studies on
electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) using 87 Rb and
85
Rb have been conducted [12,13] earlier. The effect of the
Zeeman sublevels on the experimental spectra has been dis-
cussed in detail in these articles [12,13]. Chanu et al. [14]
has shown conversion of a subnatural EIT feature to a subna-
tural EIA feature in a degenerate three-level -type system
formed in a Rb vapor cell at room temperature. They have ob-
served this in the D2 transition of Rb [14]. We have recently
shown how the velocity-selective absorption dips are generated
when a probe field is kept locked to one of the crossover peaks

0740-3224/17/122550-08 Journal 2017 Optical Society of America

 Research Article Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B 2551

of the F
2 F 0
1; 2; 3 hyperfine transitions of 87 RbD2

lines [15]. The formation of EIT signal on the background
of one of the velocity-selective absorption dips has also been
discussed in this paper. Kim et al. [16] has shown the occur-
rence of EIA, along with EIT, in the probe absorption signal in
a Doppler-broadened Cs atomic vapor medium. With an in-
crease in the control beam intensity, the V-type system results
in the formation of EIT at the middle of the EIA structure. The
dependence of the sign of EIT and absorption signals on the
polarization of the applied laser fields under Hanle configura- Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup. ECDL, exter-
tion has been reported by Brazhnikov et al. [17] for a -type nal cavity diode laser; ISO, optical isolator; HWP, half-wave plate;
M, mirror; PBS, polarizing cubic beam splitter; PD, photodetector;
system. Sargsyan et al. [18] has presented a study on Doppler-
OSC, digital oscilloscope; SAS, saturation absorption spectroscopy;
free satellite resonance of EIT as well as absorption in Rb vapor BD, beam dump; ND Filter, variable neutral density filter.
and compared the experimentally observed spectra with theo-
retical calculation. Dahl et al. [19] has shown the transforma-
tion of absorption within the transparency to transparency
within transparency in a closed degenerate two-level system the laser frequency. The detector output signal is then processed
realized in a Cs atomic beam. Dependence of the probe laser through a proportional amplifier and integrator-based servo-
absorption on the polarization of the applied laser fields has lock circuit. The output of the servo-lock circuit provides
been studied in detail in that work. the error signal, which is fed to the controller of a piezoelectric
In this paper, we present an experimental study on the EIA transducer. The grating element of the external cavity is put on
occurring on the background of velocity-selective transmission a holder, and the piezoelectric transducer is placed within this
peak (VSTP) in the probe absorption spectra in the presence of holder. The stability of the locked probe laser is around
a control field of higher intensity. The study has been done on a 1 MHz [20]. The control laser scans the F
32 F 0

five-level V-type system formed in Rb vapor at room temper- 2; 3; 41; 2; 3 transition of 85 Rb (87 Rb). This helps us in re-
ature. We also show that with increase in the intensity of the moving the Doppler broadening from the probe signal [14].
control field, a transparency-like peak starts bulging out of an The cylindrical vapor cell used in the experiment has a length
EIA background due to Rabi splitting. A density matrix-based of 5 cm and a diameter of 2.5 cm. The pressure of the Rb vapor
theoretical model for this level scheme is presented, along with inside the cell is 106 Torr. The number density of Rb atoms
some numerical simulations in support of the experimental at room temperature (300 K) is 1015 m3 . The sample cell is
findings. In the theoretical model, we have allowed the cou- kept within two layers of -metal shielding to minimize the
pling of the control and the probe fields from the same ground
level to all the excited levels. This makes our theoretical model
different from the conventional approach, where the control
and the probe fields are applied to different excited states from
the common ground level in the case of V-type systems. Apart
from the numerical simulation, we also derived an analytical
expression for the probe transmission of a V-type system to
understand the reason behind the splitting of the EIA signal
more clearly.

2. EXPERIMENT
Figure 1 shows the experimental arrangement schematically.
The probe transmission through an Rb vapor cell containing
87
Rb (27.83%) and 85 Rb (72.17%) is measured in the presence
of a copropagating high-power control (pump) laser field. Two
external cavity diode lasers (both from Toptica Photonics AG,
Germany and having free-running linewidth less than 1 MHz)
operate at 780 nm, one as the pump or control laser and the
other as probe laser. We have used an optical isolator to prevent
feedback of the laser beam from optical components such as
mirrors into the laser diode. In this experiment, the probe laser
is locked to the crossover transition occurring between the
F
32 F 0
32 and F
32 F 0
43 hyperfine Fig. 2. Five-level system resembling the 52 S 12 52 P 32 transition of
peaks of 85 Rb (87 Rb), as shown in Fig. 2. 85 Rb. The dashed lines represent the spontaneous decay paths of pop-
The hyperfine and the crossover peaks of Rb D2 transitions ulation from the excited states to the ground states. The dotted lines
are resolved by a standard setup for saturation absorption spec- represent nonradiative transfer of population between the two ground
troscopy. The crossover transition is selected by properly tuning levels j1i and j2i.
 2552 Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B
effects of the stray magnetic fields as well as the magnetic field
due to the Earth on the measurements. The external magnetic
field inside the -metal shield is less than 1 mG. We have cal-
culated transit time broadening of atoms in our experiment,
which is 0.233 MHz. The laser beam waist is 2 mm. A var-
iable neutral density filter has been used to adjust the intensity
of the control beam. The polarization of the control and the
probe beams are adjusted in such a manner so that the two
beams are separated when they fall on the polarizing cube beam
splitter placed just after the Rb vapor cell. This allows us to
detect only the probe beam with the help of a fast photodetec-
tor (New Focus) [15]. The residual Doppler shift due to the
possible directional mismatch of the control and the probe laser
beams can be neglected in this case [15]. This measurement was
performed in the Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory of Saha
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The schematic of the five-level system is shown in Fig. 2. Here
the probe laser is kept locked to the crossover signal appearing
between the F
3 F 0
3 and F
3 F 0
4 hyperfine
peaks of 85 Rb. The spectra were recorded by a digital storage
oscilloscope by scanning the pump laser frequency from the
F
3 to F 0
2; 3; 4 hyperfine levels. Thus, an effective
five-level system is formed, where the population from the
upper levels F 0
2; 3 are allowed to decay spontaneously to
both of the ground hyperfine levels j1i and j2i (F
2 and
3). But the selection rule allows spontaneous decay of popula-
tion from the uppermost excited state (F 0
4) to only the
upper ground level j2i (F
3) and not to the lowest ground
level j1i (F
2). Since the lowest ground level is not coupled
to any other excited states by the applied laser field, population
that decays to this level has only one way to come to the upper
ground level in this scheme, and that is through collision. We
have performed the measurements on both 85 Rb and 87 Rb.
Figure 3 shows the probe response signal of 85 Rb, which has
six prominent VSTPs, with one of them carrying a signature
of EIA. There should be seven such peaks according to our
Fig. 3. Plot of recorded probe transmission of 85 Rb versus control
field detuning. The values of the control and probe Rabi frequencies
are mentioned in the figure. The inset shows the zoomed spectra
around peak d at control field detuning c
70 MHz.
Research Article
theoretical analysis, as will be discussed later. The peak posi-
tions have been labeled as a, b, c, d, e, f, and g
in Fig. 3, with peak c not clearly distinguishable from the
background. The peaks corresponding to transitions having
lower strengths are weak and sometimes have inadequate sig-
nal-to-noise ratio, and therefore cannot be observed clearly in
the experimental spectra. At higher values of control Rabi fre-
quency, it becomes difficult to identify the peak e from the
background. At lower control intensity, seven peaks can be
identified, but at higher control field intensity, the smaller
peaks get masked due to the power broadening. With the in-
crease in the power of the control field, the EIA signal also gets
more and more prominent, and for a control beam Rabi fre-
quency 33.86 MHz (Fig. 3 and the inset therein), we can
clearly observe a transparency-like peak trying to come out
of the EIA background. There has been an earlier report on
the conversion of EIT into EIA in a -type system [14]
and N-type system [19]. Kim et al. [16] observed EIA to
EIT transformation in Cs-D2 transition by varying the pump
beam power. They measured the probe absorption spectrum by
changing the probe detuning. In our experiment, similar behav-
ior of the probe response has also been found in the case of Rb
vapor with control field scanning. The appearance of the EIA
signal and splitting of the EIA peak is clearly visible as we keep
on increasing the value of the control field intensity. We have
tried to understand the physical phenomena of the conversion
by detailed theoretical simulation numerically and analytically.
The EIA signals corresponding to different values of control
Rabi frequency are fitted with a Lorentzian line profile, and
only those EIA signals are used for this purpose, for which
no signature of the splitting is present. The values of the fitted
full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the EIA signals
are 3.63 MHz, 3.81 MHz, 4.25 MHz, and 4.33 MHz,
corresponding to control Rabi frequency of 13.18 MHz,
16.14 MHz, 22.83 MHz, and 25.01 MHz, respectively.
The widths of the EIA signal are found to vary linearly with
the control Rabi frequency, as shown in Fig. 4 for the 85 Rb
atom. The width of the EIA signal is much less than the natural
linewidth of the transition, i.e.,
6 MHz, so we observed
subnatural EIA linewidth. A plot of the zoomed VSTP peak of
Fig. 4. Plot of EIA linewidth (FWHM) versus control field Rabi
frequency (c ) for 85 Rb atom.
 Research Article Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B 2553

q
S
jji (with j
3, 4, 5 here) is ij
 3ij jhJjerjJ 0 ij, where
S ij is the relative hyperfine transition strength factor [8].
p
J
12 and J 0
32 here. Rabi frequency is defined as 2j

p E 
S 2j p with p
pp jhJjerjJ 0 ij. E p stands for the ampli-
3
tude of the applied probe laser field. The ith level population is
ii (i
1, 2, 3, P
4, 5 for this level scheme) with the normali-
zation condition 5i
1 ii
1 [15]. ij (i j, i, j
1, 2, 3, 4,
5) are the off-diagonal density matrix elements, which are also
known as the coherence terms. For this five-level system, a total
of 25 optical Bloch equations [22] are derived by using the
Liouville equation, where the phenomenological decay terms
are added. The coherence terms 2j (j
3, 4, 5) [22,23]
can be written as follows:
Fig. 5. Plot of zoomed VSTP signal of 87 Rb versus control field X5
p
X
5

detuning (c ). The occurrence of the transparency peak at the higher 2j
2j e ip tkp z  c2j e ic tkc z : (3)
j
3 j
3
value of the control Rabi frequency (c ) is clearly visible.
These terms have contributions from both the control field and
the probe field. A set of optical Bloch equations under steady-
87 state condition (i.e.,
t
0) is given below. The complex
Rb, over which the EIA signal and its splitting are visible, is
conjugates of the equations are not shown:
shown in Fig. 5. The reason behind the formation of the seven
VSTPs is explained in the next section. A similar situation was 12 11  21 22  31 33  41 44  51 55
0; (4)
encountered earlier while studying a six-level -type system
[15]. We shall explain this for 85 Rb in the following section; ic23 c ic ic
the explanation for 87 Rb will be identical. 32 c23   24 c42 c24   25 c52 c25 
2 2 2
p p p
i p p i p p i p p
 23 32 23   24 42 24   25 52 25 
4. THEORETICAL MODEL 2 2 2
We explained these experimental results by a proper theoretical  12 11 21 22  32 33  42 44  52 55
0; (5)
model to find out how VSTP peaks are generated and how
p
splitting of EIA occurs with increasing pump power. Now ic23 c i p p
23 c32   23 23 32  31  32 33
we are going to describe the theoretical model for the five-level 2 2
system (as shown in Fig. 2), interacting with two copropagating  43 44  53 55
0; (6)
laser fields. In our system, both the control and the probe fields
are allowed to connect all the excited levels j3i, j4i, and j5i ic24 c i
p
p p
from the common ground level j2i (see Fig. 2). These cou- 24 c42   24 24 42 
2 2
plings make our system different from a conventional system,
where the control and the probe fields act on different levels. 41  42  43 44  54 55
0; (7)
The total Hamiltonian of the system can be written as p
H
H0  HI , where H0 is the unperturbed Hamiltonian, ic25 c i p p
25 c52   25 25 52 
and HI represents the interaction Hamiltonian [21]: 2 2
X
5 51  52  53  54 55
0; (8)
H0
i jiihij
i
1 ic23 ic ic
 32 ic32 c32  33 22   24 34  25 35
0;

1 j1ih1j  2 j2ih2j  3 j3ih3j 2 2 2
 4 j4ih4j  5 j5ih5j; (1) (9)

where i is the energy eigenvalue of the ith level. The

interaction Hamiltonian (HI ) can be expressed as p p p
p i23 i i
 32 ic32 32  33 22   24 34  25 35
0;
p p p 2 2 2
H I
23 j2ih3j  24 j2ih4j  25 j2ih5je ip tkp z
2 (10)
 c23 j2ih3j  c24 j2ih4j  c25 j2ih5je ic tkc z  H:c::
(2)
ic24 ic ic
p
2jand c2j (j
3, 4, 5) are the Rabi frequencies of the probe  42 ic42 c42  44 22   23 43  25 45
0;
2 2 2
and the control fields, respectively. The effective dipole mo-
(11)
ment for the dipole allowed transition from state j2i to state
 2554 Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B Research Article

p p p
p p i24 i i
 42 i42 42  44 22   23 43  25 45
0;
2 2 2
(12)

ic25 ic ic
 52 ic52 c52  55 22   23 53  24 54
0;
2 2 2
(13)

p p p
p p i25 i i
 52 i52 52  55 22   23 53  24 54
0;
2 2 2
(14)
Fig. 6. Plot of simulated probe transmission versus control field
p p
ic i p ic i p detuning (c ) for 85 Rb. In the inset, the zoomed probe transmission
 43 i43 43  23 c42  23 42 24 c23 24 23
0; is shown around c
70 MHz. The values of the control and probe
2 2 2 2
field Rabi frequencies are mentioned in the figure.
(15)

p p transmission () versus control field detuning (c ) at different

ic i p ic i p
 53 i53 53  23 c52  23 52  25 c23  25 23
0;
2 2 2 2
(16)
p p
ic24 i24 p ic25 i25
 54 i54 54  2 c52  2 52 2 c24 2 24
The control and the probe field detunings are defined as
p
c2j
c 2j , j
3, 4, 5, and 2j
p 2j , j
3,
4, 5. 2j represents the energy level separation between
the levels j2i and jji, j
3, 4, 5. The decay rate of population
from the state jii to the state jji is given by 2j. Following the
selection rules for the D2 transition of Rb, the decay of pop-
ulation from the excited states j3i and j4i to both the ground
levels is allowed, whereas that of population from the upper-
most energy level j5i only to the ground level j2i is allowed.
Spontaneous decay of population from j5i to j1i is dipole for-
bidden; hence we put 51
0 in the simulation. The values of
all other spontaneous decay rates (Einsteins A coefficient) from
the excited levels to the ground levels are assigned following the
values given in Refs. [7,8]. The set of density matrix equations
[i.e., Eqs. (4)(17)] are solved numerically to determine the
probe response with thermal averaging (ensemble temperature
T
300 K) [15]. By taking account of the Doppler shifts of
the pump beam and the probe beams, we can represent the
p
pump and the probe detunings by c2j and 2j , j
3, 4, 5,
p p
respectively. Here c2j
c2j kc v and 2j
2j k p v.
We assume that atoms are moving with a velocity v. The probe
transmission signal () can be written as
Z 

Im23  24  25 M vdv: (18)
Since the atoms are in thermal motion at temperature T,
they follow Maxwell velocity distribution, M v

p
u  expv 2 u2 , where u is the most probable velocity
of the atoms at a temperature T K and v is the velocity of
the atoms. We shall first show a plot of the simulated probe
values of the control Rabi frequency (c ) in Fig. 6 for 85 Rb.
The value of the probe Rabi frequency (p ) is kept fixed at
1 MHz throughout the simulation process. We have assumed
that the control laser detuning c
0 at c
42 .
In Fig. 6, we can identify the seven VSTPs at a control Rabi
p

0: frequency (c ) of 23 MHz. At higher values of control Rabi
frequency c, a small peak (peak c in Figs. 3 and 6) is masked
(17)
due to the power broadening. The agreement in the peak
positions between the experimental and the simulated figures
can be easily noticed from Figs. 3 and 6. In Fig. 6, the VSTP
signal at control laser detuning c
70 MHz shows EIA
superimposed on the VSTP signal. With an increase in the con-
trol Rabi frequency, this EIA signal becomes stronger, and at
c 27 MHz, we notice splitting of the EIA starts to occur.
Similar behavior is found in the experimental spectra (Fig. 3).
We have kept the probe beam detuned by 10 MHz from the
middle of the upper hyperfine levels j4i and j5i to take into
account the effect of the side-locking technique employed in
our experimental setup [15]. This means that the probe field
is locked at c
70 MHz. The origin of the VSTP signals can
be understood very easily with the help of Fig. 7. Since we have
used the side-locking technique to lock the laser to an atomic
resonance, the lock point will not be the middle of the
transition line, but rather at its wing.
The crossover peak appearing between the hyperfine tran-
sitions 52 S12 F
3 52 P32 F 0
3 and 52 S12 F
3 52 P32 F 0

4 has been chosen as the lock point reference. As a result, the
probe laser gets locked to the wing of this crossover peak.
Under this condition, the probe beam sends three different
velocity groups of atoms, namely, 39.41 ms, 54.47 m/s,
and 88.74 m/s to the levels j5i, j4i, and j3i, respectively.
When the control beam is scanned, it comes into resonance
with these three velocity groups of atoms and produces seven
VSTP peaks. In Fig. 7(i), the control laser is red-detuned by an
amount of 50.64 MHz from level j3i. It is then on resonance
with the v
39.41 ms velocity group of atoms due to
Doppler shifting [20] and hence pumps this group of atoms
from the ground level j2i to the upper hyperfine level j3i
 Research Article Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Fig. 7. Schematic showing the origins of the VSTP signals. The
positions of the control and the probe fields corresponding to the peak
positions a, b, c, d, e, f, and g of Figs. 3 and 6 are shown observation (Fig. 5).
in (i)(vii), respectively.
(52 S12 F
3 52 P32 F 0
2 for 85 Rb). Thus peak a in Figs. 3
and 6 appears. Similarly, when the pump beam is detuned by
50.64 MHz from level j4i [Fig. 7(ii)], it again comes to reso-
nance with the same velocity group of atoms and sends them to
j4i from j2i (52 S12 F
3 52 P32 F 0
3 for 85 Rb), thereby cre-
ating the peak b in Figs. 3 and 6. The separation between the
peaks a and b is 1
63.40 MHz. The pump beam then
reaches the position shown in Fig. 7(iii), where it is blue-
detuned by 70 MHz with respect to level j3i, and hence
pumps the atoms having velocity 54.47 m/s. This is the reason
behind the appearance of the peak c in Figs. 3 and 6,
although it is masked by power broadening. The strengths
of the VSTP signals a, b, c, and e are quite a bit less
compared to the other VSTPs because of the much lower rel-
ative strengths of the associated transitions from j2i to j3i and
j2i to j4i compared to the transition from j2i to j5i. Thus, we
see that the relative strengths of the hyperfine transitions from
the same ground level do play an important role in the forma-
tion of VSTPs. The pump beam then reaches the position of
the locked probe beam [Fig. 7(iv)] and becomes on resonant
with three different velocity groups of atoms simultaneously
and excites them to the three different levels j3i, j4i, j5i from
the ground level j2i. This affects the probe absorption, result-
ing in the strongest of the VSTP peaks (d in Figs. 3 and 6).
The separations of the peaks a, b, and c from d are
1  2 , 2 , and 1 , respectively, where 1 and 2
are the separations between the upper hyperfine levels
(j3i j4i) and (j4i j5i). Similarly, the peaks e, f, and
g of Figs. 3 and 6 are created when the pump beam reaches
the positions given by Figs. 7(v)7(vii), respectively. It interacts
with the 88.74 ms, 54.47 ms and again with
88.74 ms, respectively, to pump them to the levels j4i
and j5i. The separations between these peaks are just similar
to the peaks appearing to the left on these spectra. A similar
argument can be used to describe the physical mechanism
2555
acting behind the formation of the VSTP signal and the spac-
ings between the VSTPs for 87 Rb [13]. Because of the differ-
ence in the hyperfine separations between the two isotopes, the
velocity groups of atoms interacting with the coherent radiation
fields would be different for 87 Rb. It is also to be noted that only
for Fig. 7(iv), both the pump and the probe fields are sending
the same velocity group of atoms (namely 39.41 ms) from
F
3 ground state to F 0
4 excited state, i.e., Fe
Fg  1
(Fg > 0), where Fe and Fg are the total quantum numbers of
the excited and ground states, respectively [24]. This is a close
transition, according to the selection rule. The polarizations of
the probe and the control fields are linear but orthogonal to
each other. This leads to the formation of EIA due to transfer
of coherence (TOC) [24]. We have shown the simulated probe
transmission spectra versus control detuning for 87 Rb in Fig. 8
for four different values of control Rabi frequencies. The split-
ting of the EIA signal in the background of the VSTP is noticed
clearly as the pump Rabi frequency is increased (27 MHz and
above). The simulation is in agreement with the experimental
To understand the splitting in the EIA signal at a high value
of control Rabi frequency, we have derived an analytical
expression for a three-level V-type system from the set of
density matrix equations presented earlier. Here we consider
one ground level (j2i) and two excited levels (j4i and j5i)
(see Fig. 2); control and probe beam couples both the excited
levels, and all population is in the ground state when no field is
present, i.e., 22
1 for simplicity of the solution. The
p
approximate analytical expression of 52 , obtained under a
steady-state condition by using perturbation technique, is given
below. We have retained the terms containing probe Rabi
frequency up to the second order and also assumed 22
1:
Z  p
i25
p
52
2
p2
M vdv:
p 24
 52 i52   4
2
c 4
2
c 4
 54 i54  i
25
c  ic
24
42 42 52 52
(19)
p
In Fig. 9(A) we have plotted the imaginary part of with 52
control detuning for different values of control Rabi frequency
Fig. 8. Plot of simulated probe transmission of 87 Rb versus control
field detuning (c ).
 2556 Vol. 34, No. 12 / December 2017 / Journal of the Optical Society of America B
(A)
(B)
Fig. 9. Plot of probe transmission (V-type three-level system) versus
control field detuning (c ). (A) Different values of control Rabi
frequencies (c ). (B) Different values of most probable velocity u
of atoms of 85 Rb.
c . The probe beam is locked to j2i j5i transition and the
control field is scanning level j4i and j5i from level j2i. It is
seen that at c
16 MHz, only the EIA signal is appearing,
but at higher values of c , a peak is generated at the middle of
the EIA signal. This peak becomes more prominent with in-
creasing control Rabi frequency. The origin of this peak is
due to Rabi splitting [25]. We have also noticed that thermal
averaging also plays an important role in the generation of this
peak [26,27]. In Fig. 9(B) we have shown the variation of probe
transmission with the velocity of the atoms. At the low value of
atomic velocity, the EIA signal does not show any splitting, but
at higher atomic velocity, it appears in the EIA signal.
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have shown the occurrence of EIA in the
probe absorption spectra of 87 Rb and 85 Rb in the presence
of a control field for a multilevel V-type system without any
externally applied magnetic field. The splitting of the EIA
signal in a multilevel V-type system under the present exper-
imental condition is quite rare and interesting. The experimen-
tal observations for 87 Rb and 85 Rb are similar. VSTPs are found
to appear in the probe response spectra. The origin of the VSTP
signals has been explained on the basis of Doppler shifting.
Research Article
The analytic treatment of the three-level V-type system helps
in understanding the mechanism responsible for the splitting of
EIA; it is found that this is due to Rabi splitting and thermal
averaging at a higher control field intensity. The simulated
probe transmission features agree well with the experimental
findings. The EIA occurs on the background of one of the
VSTP signals, which is created due to the simultaneous exci-
tation of two open transitions and one closed transition due to
the Doppler effect. The open transition leads to the exit of
atoms from the emission-absorption cycles through spontane-
ous emission to a ground energy level that is not connected
through any laser field.
The splitting of the EIA signal at higher values of the control
Rabi frequency causes rapid modulation of the refractive index
of the medium with respect to the probe field. This would re-
sult in modulation of the dispersive properties of the atomic
vapor medium. Very interesting studies on the propagation
of a probe pulse through such a medium in the presence of
a strong control field can be carried out. Depending on the
value of the control field intensity, the slope of the dispersion
signal changes sign. So, the medium can be used to generate
sub- to superluminal propagation of light pulses. This may have
useful applications in manipulating the probe pulse propaga-
tion through atomic vapor medium and in optical delay
generators, all optical switches, etc., in the future.
Funding. University Grants Commission (UGC) (FPSW-
205/13-14, 43-527/2014(SR)); Department of Science and
Technology, New Delhi (DST) (SR/FTP/PS-079/2010);
Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India (DAE)
(12-R&D-SIN-5.02-0102).
Acknowledgment. We acknowledge the referees for
their valuable suggestions, which improved the quality of
the paper. K. I. acknowledges Visva-Bharati for providing a re-
search fellowship under the UGC scheme. D. B. thanks the
UGC for a research project. A. B. acknowledges the
Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi
for granting a research project under the start-up research grant
(Young Scientists) and the University Grants Commission
(UGC), New Delhi for granting a major research project.
S. D. and S. S. acknowledge the financial support received from
the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.
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