Abstract

A very large number of physical phenomena in the resonant interaction of atomic-molecular systems with the radiation fields can be studied by treating the atomic system as a two level system and by examining its response to the applied fields. Various perturbative results are well known. A number of recent experimental works require the knowledge of the nonperturbative response functions, when both the applied fields are strong. These include a variety of experiments on instabilities⁽¹⁾ in lasers involving the switching from a single mode to for example two mode operation. Similarly recent nonlinear mixing experiments, where not only four wave mixing but also higher mixing in saturating fields has been studied. Pump probe experiments have also been repeated with probes whose intensity could be large. The purpose of this paper is to formulate the general theory and use it to understand the experiments. The formulation we present is also well suited for studying the effect of collisions. Details of various collisional induced coherences in fourwave and six wave mixing etc. can be studied.

© 1985 Optical Society of America