Abstract
Spontaneous emission can be modified if atom is driven by external coherent field. An example of such a modification is the three-peak spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a two-level atom.1 For a three-level atom, a narrowing of spectral line on one transition controlled by coherent driving of another transition was predicted2 and experimentally demonstrated.3 In a recent paper4 it was shown that spectral line elimination and cancellation of spontaneous emission is possible under certain conditions. The aim of the present paper is to extend this idea and to show that the spontaneous emission from an excited atom can be completely suppressed. That is, the atoms can be "trapped" in the upper states without decaying. These studies suggest that one can, in principle, "control" the amount of fluorescence as well as the population in the upper levels. We note that if spontaneous emission along some atomic transition is suppressed, it may become possible to create a population inversion on this transition by use of a very weak incoherent pumping. Thus the control of spontaneous emission can be potentially useful for achieving high frequency and/or high power lasers
© 1997 Optical Society of America
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