Normal or anomalous dispersion and gain in a resonant coherent medium

Abstract

We show that in a four-level atomic system with electromagnetically induced transparency, a coherent pump field can induce light amplification without or with population inversion. As the pump field intensity increases, the atomic system evolves from normal dispersion and amplification without population inversion into anomalous dispersion and amplification with population inversion. We report an experiment on light amplification in cold rubidium atoms and present experimental measurements that agree with theoretical calculations based on the four-level model system.