UNDERLYING SIMPLICITY OF ATOMIC POPULATION VARIATIONS INDUCED BY A STOCHASTIC PHASE-FLUCTUATING FIELD

We have examined the temporal evolution of a two-level atom in respons e to stochastic phase-fluctuating fields by applying perturbation theo ry to the optical Bloch equations written in the instantaneous frame. Our results show that the general nature of the atomic population vari ations is relatively simple, being composed of adiabatic and nonadiaba tic components. The adiabatic response results from Fourier components of the phase variation below the system's Rabi frequency and is propo rtional to the product of the relatively slow phase variation and its first derivative. The nonadiabatic response has its maximum amplitude at the system's Rabi frequency, for which the atom behaves like a simp le harmonic oscillator whose resonance frequency is the Rabi frequency . In this sense the atom acts as a tunable narrow-band filter.