Laser spectroscopy of collisional coherence transfer

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Abstract
Considers the transfer of optical coherence from one level pair to another. The effect is isolated from the general collision expression derived by Berman (1976) and it is argued that it is best observed in transient measurements. The free decay of a four-level system is solved analytically and two regimes are found: one with oscillations displaying a beat and another with two decay rates. At the border the exponential dependence is modified. The implications for free induction decay and echo experiments are presented. Both phenomena can be used to detect the collisional transfer of coherence, and some experimental aspects of their observation are discussed.