Ultrafast Rabi flopping in a three-level energy ladder

Abstract

We demonstrate Rabi oscillation of a resonant two-photon transition in a three-level ladder-type quantum system of gaseous rubidium atoms induced by a single femtosecond laser pulse. For this, we shape the flat-top spatial profile of the laser pulse and perform the ultrafast population cycling of the atoms as a function of pulse energy. The experimental result confirms that the Rabi frequency of the transition from a ground state to a final state depends linearly on the pulse area, although the transition is a two-photon process. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America