Two-level atom saturated by a fluctuating resonant laser beam. Calculation of the fluorescence spectrum

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Abstract
The behaviour of a two-level atom saturated by a resonant fluctuating laser beam is studied. A classical description of the light wave is used, corresponding to a laser well above threshold. Two different approximations are introduced for treating the effects of slow and fast fluctuations; slow fluctuations are followed adiabatically by the atom and fast fluctuations appear as a relaxation mechanism for the population difference and for the optical dipole moment obeying the motional-narrowing condition. The perturbation of the spectral distribution of the fluorescence light is determined quantitatively and the great sensitivity of this spectrum to higher order correlation functions of the light wave is exhibited.