Laser-induced rate processes in gases: Phase coherence in an N-level model

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Abstract
We consider a gas of molecules absorbing light from a monochromatic laser source and also undergoing both phase randomizing and thermalizing collisions with a heat bath of inert molecules. The generalized master equation formalism, used previously to study a system of this type with a two-level absorber, is extended to an absorber with N equally spaced levels. The possibility of unimolecular decay from any or all of the N levels is included in the formalism. The well-known relaxation model of Rubin and Shuler and the chemical reaction model of Montroll and Shuler are built into the formalism as special cases when the light source is turned off. Specific calculations for an eight-level model are presented and compared with results expected for an incoherent light source. A coherent effect which increases the upper level populations at steady state is found to exist. A corresponding increase in the macroscopic chemical rate constant is calculated for the coherent model when unimolecular decay from the top level is included. A particularly simple and general result is found for the power absorbed by a harmonic oscillator. It is also shown that, for the N-level model, one does not necessarily find equal populations in the limit of infinite light field intensity.