Absorption spectra of driven degenerate two-level atomic systems - art. no. 053803

The absorption properties of degenerate two-level atomic systems rested by a weak probe field in the presence of an intense pump field have been analy zed. The theoretical model previously resented in Phys. Rev. A 61, 013801 ( 1999) that appears to be suitable for arbitrary choices of the pump intensi ty, level angular momenta, and pump and probe polarizations, was used for t he calculation of the spectra for several basic configurations. Experimenta l absorption spectra obtained on a Rb atomic beam for different pump and pr obe field polarizations show good agreement with the calculation. The spect ra are in general essentially different from and more complex than the clas sical Mollow absorption triplet.