Perturbative corrections to the rotating-wave approximation for two-level molecules and the effects of permanent dipoles on single-photon and multiphoton spectra

Perturbative corrections are derived for the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) for the single-photon and multiphoton resonance profiles due to the interaction between a two-level molecule, with nonzero permanent dipoles, and a sinusoidal time-dependent electric field. The derivation is carried out through the use of a Floquet secular equation that introduces the effects of the permanent dipole moments into the problem through the argument, d⋅e^scrE/ω, of Bessel functions contained in molecule-laser coupling parameters; here d=${\mu }_{22}$-${\mu }_{11}$, where ${\mu }_{\mathrm{ii}}$ is the permanent dipole of molecular state i, and scrE, e^, and ω are the field strength, direction of polarization unit vector, and the circular frequency of the electromagnetic field (EMF). Expansions for the N-photon resonance profiles and the associated resonance frequencies and full widths at half maximum, in powers of the couplings between the transition and permanent dipole moments and the applied EMF, are obtained by expanding the Bessel functions in the perturbative results and are compared with those in the literature (available mostly for d=0 only). The perturbative results, and a series of exactly calculated two-level model absorption spectra, are used to discuss (1) the ability of the explicit perturbative corrections to the RWA to explain the differences between exact and RWA resonance profiles (for example, the positive or negative Bloch-Siegert shifts and dynamic backgrounds absent in the RWA), (2) the usefulness of the perturbative corrections in general, and (3) the effects of permanent dipoles on single-photon and multiphoton absorption spectra.