Perturbing an electromagnetically induced transparency in a Λ system using a low-frequency driving field. I. Three-level system

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance in a Λ configuration is obtained when the frequencies of two fields are close to resonance with two of the transitions and their frequency difference matches the frequency of the third transition. In this situation the spectrum of one swept field as a probe gives a simple transparency feature. However, when an additional field drives the third transition the EIT feature associated with the probe is split. This perturbed EIT is illustrated for both single and bichromatic driving fields. In the single-driving-field case a density matrix treatment is shown to be in reasonable agreement with experiment, and in both single and bichromatic cases the structure in the spectrum can be explained using the dressed-state formalism. The dressed states can also be used to account for subharmonic resonances observed in the strong-probe regime.