Abstract

It is well known that driven two-level atoms can exhibit optical amplification.¹ This fact has led to the recent demonstration of single-photon lasing in cell and atomic-beam type ensembles of two-level atoms.² We show that the same simple two-level system can also be utilized as a two- or more-photon amplifying medium. The underlying physics can be understood in terms of the atom field dressed-state picture. When driven by a field detuned from the atomic resonance, significant population inversion between the dressed-state doublets can be created. In the dressed picture, single-photon lasing occurs between inverted sublevels of adjacent dressed-state doublets. Transitions between nonadjacent doublets are still inverted, but require two or more photons. In the degenerate case, the multiphoton emission frequencies differ from the single-photon emission frequency and can hence be selectively enhanced using an optical cavity. Due to the peculiar structure of dressed levels, the multiphoton emissions are all connected through near resonant intermediate states. The multiphoton emissions can also be viewed as a stimulated hyper-Raman scattering of successively higher order.

© 1989 Optical Society of America