The Floquet theory of the two level system revisited

Abstract

We reconsider the periodically driven two level system and especially the Rabi problem with linear polarization. The Floquet theory of this problem can be reduced to its classical limit, i.e., to the investigation of periodic solutions of the classical Hamiltonian equations of motion in the Bloch sphere. The quasienergy is essentially the action integral over one period and the resonance condition due to J.H. Shirley is shown to be equivalent to the vanishing of the time average of a certain component of the classical solution. This geometrical approach is applied to obtain analytical approximations to physical quantities of the Rabi problem with linear polarization as well as asymptotic formulas for various limit cases.