Stimulated effects in one-photon resonant interferometric four-wave mixingwith incoherent light

The interferometric four-wave mixing technique with broadband light is exte nded to measurements of population relaxation. For what is believed to be t he first time, the population relaxation rate in the presence of a pump fie ld is measured, it is shown that stimulated emission can significantly affe ct the results when one is dealing with resonant transient wave mixing, and , consequently, in most cases stimulated processes should be taken into acc ount. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.