Spectrum of absorption of a weak signal by an atom in a strong field

An analysis is made of the spectrum of absorption of a weak probe electromagnetic field by two-level atoms in a strong resonant laser field, undergoing collision with buffer gas atoms. The analysis is made using an approach that allows for the direct influence of a strong electromagnetic field on the dynamics of an elastic collision between an active atom and a buffer gas atom. Rate equations are analyzed for a combined "atom–strong electromagnetic field" system (an atom "dressed" by the field) allowing for spontaneous and optical collisional transitions, and also for the interaction with the probe field. In the steady-state case, an expression is derived for the electric susceptibility of the medium at the small-signal frequency. This expression contains the rates of the optical collisional transitions that depend nontrivially on the parameters of the strong electromagnetic field. The phenomenological characteristics of optical collisional transitions generally used are only valid at low intensities and for small frequency detunings of the strong electromagnetic field, i.e., in the impact limit.