On the spontaneous-coherence-transfer-induced sign change of a sub-natural-width nonlinear resonance

Abstract

A simple theoretical model is proposed which describes the positive sign of the nonlinear absorption resonances in the experiments of Akul’shin et al. [Phys. Rev. A 57, 2996 (1998)]. An analytical expression for the linear response to a weak probe field is obtained in the weak-saturation limit. It is shown that the positive sign of sub-natural-width resonances is due to the spontaneous transfer of low-frequency coherence from an excited level to the ground state.