POPULATION TRANSFER BY STIMULATED RAMAN-SCATTERING WITH DELAYED PULSES USING SPECTRALLY BROAD LIGHT

The feasability of selective and complete population transfer between atomic or molecular levels by stimulated Raman scattering with delayed pulses involving spectrally broad light with characteristics typical for pulsed lasers is investigated. In extension of previous work, the effect on the transfer efficiency of phase fluctuations and of the detuning DELTA(R) of the laser frequencies from the two-photon resonance is analyzed. The minimum pulse energy P(min) required to achieve a transfer efficiency of nearly unity is derived analytically, with some restrictions imposed on the type of phase fluctuations. P(min) increases approximately proportional to the square of the bandwidth of the laser radiation and to the square of DELTA(R). The conclusions are confirmed by the results of extensive numerical calculations. These studies also reveal a high sensitivity of the transfer efficiency to the autocorrelation of the fluctuating light.