We study the relationship between electromagnetically-induced transparency（EIT） and Autler–Townes（AT） splitting in a cascade three-level Doppler-broadened system. By comparing the absorption spectrum with the fluorescence excitation spectrum, it is found that for a Doppler-broadened system, EIT resonance cannot be explained as the result of quantum interference, unlike the case of a homogeneously broadened system. Instead, the macroscopic polarization interference plays an important role in determining the spectra of EIT and AT splitting, which can be explained within the same framework when being detected by the absorption spectra.
We study the electromagnetically-induced transparency（EIT） in a Doppler-broadened cascaded three-level system.We decompose the susceptibility responsible for the EIT resonance into a linear and a nonlinear part, and the EIT resonance reflects mainly the characteristics of the nonlinear susceptibility. It is found that the macroscopic polarization interference effect plays a crucial role in determining the EIT resonance spectrum. To obtain a Doppler-free spectrum there must be polarization interference between atoms of different velocities. A dressed-state model, which analyzes the velocities at which the atoms are in resonance with the dressed states through Doppler frequency shifting, is employed to explain the results.
