Frequency modulated few-cycle optical pulse trains induced controllable ultrafast coherent population oscillations in three-level atomic systems

Abstract

We report a study on the ultrafast coherent population oscillations (UCPO) in two level atoms induced by the frequency modulated few-cycle optical pulse train. The phenomenon of UCPO is investigated by numerically solving the optical Bloch equations beyond the rotating wave approximation. We demonstrate that the quantum state of the atoms and the frequency of UCPO may be controlled by controlling the number of pulses in the pulse trains and the pulse repetition time respectively. Moreover, the robustness of the population inversion against the variation of the laser pulse parameters is also investigated. The proposed scheme may be useful for the creation of atoms in selected quantum state for desired time duration and may have potential applications in ultrafast optical switching.