Mollow Triplet

laser parameters

intensity

Ω

L

10

emitter decoherence parameters

radiative decay

γ

σ

1

incoherent pump

P

σ

0

pure dephasing

γ

ϕ

0

detection parameters

detector

non-ideal

ideal

detector linewidth Γ

0.1

axis limits

ω

min

-40

ω

max

40

top intensity

1

two-level system driven by a laser

The Mollow triplet is the lineshape of emission from a two-level system (such as an isolated electronic transition in an atom) that is resonantly excited by a continuous wave laser [1]. The triplet that arises from dressing the emitter by the strong laser field is one of the most famous and fundamental spectral lines of quantum optics.

In this Demonstration, you can explore this lineshape for the standard configuration of excitation by an ideal classical laser with an infinite coherence time, frequency

ω

L

and intensity

Ω

L

. The emitter has a natural frequency

ω

σ

and decays spontaneously from its excited state at a rate

γ

σ

. To this standard description, we also add the possibility for an incoherent type of excitation of the emitter, at a rate

P

σ

, and pure dephasing of the two levels at a rate

γ

ϕ

. The inset shows the probability of finding the emitter in the ground or excited states. The spectrum is shown as measured by a detector of spectral width (or frequency uncertainty)

Γ

. You can also consider the ideal detector limit as

Γ→0

.