Inhibition of two-photon absorption in a three-level system with a pair of bichromatic fields

We study two-photon absorption in a three-level ladder atomic system driven by a pair of bichromatic fields of equal frequency differences. The high-frequency component of one bichromatic field and the low-frequency component of the other are on two-photon resonance. The transition probability is calculated by employing the method of harmonic expansion and matrix inversion. Unexpectedly, when the sums of the phases of the different pairs of field components on the two-photon resonance are equal to each other, two-photon absorption is dramatically suppressed and the atomic system becomes transparent against two-photon absorption. Physically, due to dynamical Stark splitting, the two-photon transitions induced by the different pairs of field components experience different dressed states with phase difference of pi. As a result, destructive interference occurs between the two pathways and leads to the inhibition of two-photon absorption. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.