Abstract

Recently, Narducci et al.¹ have studied V-type three-level atoms (see Fig. 1) and have predicted that coherences associated with a “strong” optical transition can be stabilized through excitation of a coupled "weak" transition. This stabilization is manifest in a narrowing, to subnatural values, of the fluorescence linewidths associated with the strong transition (|2> - |0>) as the weak transition (|l> - |0>) is driven more and more strongly. We have investigated this problem, and provide the first experimental demonstration of the new effect.

© 1990 Optical Society of America