Theory of Lineshapes in Optical-Optical Double Resonance Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper derives analytical and numerical lineshape models for molecular Optical-Optical Double Resonance Spectroscopy, accounting for Doppler broadening and power broadening effects, revealing inhomogeneous broadening characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for lineshape analysis in DR spectroscopy, including effects of Doppler broadening and pump-probe configurations.

Findings

Lineshapes are Lorentzian without Doppler broadening, showing Autler-Townes splitting.

Doppler broadening leads to inhomogeneous Lorentzian lineshapes, especially at high Doppler widths.

Saturation power is about four times higher than for the bare transition, indicating lower-than-expected power broadening.

Abstract

This paper presents lineshapes for molecular Optical-Optical Double Resonance (DR) Spectroscopy with arbitrary strength for both pump and probe field using the steady-state solutions for the 3-level density matrix. When the Doppler broadening can be neglected, the results are analytical, and the probe spectrum is a pair of Lorentzian lines that display Autler-Townes splitting, and each has an angular frequency half-width half maximum equal to the relaxation rates, which are all assumed equal. When Doppler broadening is introduced, one must resort to numerical integration except for the limit of weak pump and probe fields. When the Doppler width is assumed much larger than the pump and probe Rabi Frequencies, the calculated DR lineshapes are found to be Lorentzian with a strong pump field limit that is proportional to the pump Rabi frequency, what is commonly known as power broadening. However, the width does not equal the Rabi frequency and is different for co- and counter-propagating pump and probe fields. Furthermore, that broadening is largely inhomogeneous, despite the Lorentzian shape. The saturation power is found to be about 4 times higher than for the bare probe transition with the same relaxation rate, dramatically lower than that expected if the width is interpreted as homogeneous.