The effect of Doppler broadening on dispersive and absorptive properties in atomic systems with two-photon interference

The effect of Doppler broadening on dispersive and absorptive properties is theoretically investigated in the hot four-level electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) atomic systems with two different types of two-photon interference. It is found that the dispersive behavior for the probe in the ladder-type atomic system with two-photon constructive interference will be changed from anomalous in cold atoms to normal in hot atoms, and the three-peak absorptive profile is shifted to a broadened spectrum with a shallow dip at the line center; as a comparison, there is always normal dispersion at the line center for the invert-Y-type atomic system with two-photon destructive interference, but the EIT window in the absorptive profile will be narrowed to subnatural linewidth (0.01 Gamma) at room temperature. The physics of those two different behaviors are discussed and compared in the dressed-state theory. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.