Suppressed excitation due to the dynamic Stark effect that arises from amplified spontaneous emission

Abstract
We have numerically solved a simplified set of Maxwell-Bloch equations for a two-field, three-level model. Excitation from the ground state to the upper state is a two-photon process with a nonresonant intermediate state. Amplified spontaneous emission can occur from the upper excited state of the model system to the intermediate state. The equations can contain terms corresponding to the dynamic Stark effect resulting from the amplified spontaneous-emission field. Inclusion of these terms significantly reduces the excitation probability when the irradiance of the exciting field is above the threshold for occurrence of amplified spontaneous emission from the upper excited state. These theoretical results qualitatively explain a recent experimental observation of the decreased excitation probability for such a process in gas-phase xenon.