Optical Stark Spectroscopy of a Brownian Oscillator in Intense Fields

Abstract

The optical Stark effect of a two-level system coupled to a Brownian oscillator (i.e. a harmonic mode which in turn is coupled to a heat bath) is studied using equations of motion for a reduced density matrix. These equations, derived using path integral techniques, can be used to study the combined effects of strong fields and dephasing processes at finite temperature, and interpolate continuously from the coherent to the overdamped limits where they reduce to the stochastic Gaussian-Markovian equation. Numerical calculations of probe absorption spectra for various pump intensities are presented, and show dynamical Stark splitting. In contrast to the Bloch equations which contain an infinite-temperature dephasing, we find that at finite temperature, the Stark peaks may have different heights even when the pump pulse is on resonance. © 1994, THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. All rights reserved.