The resonance behavior of magnetic and optical two-level systems under the influence of strong modulated fields is studied in detail by solving the Bloch equations in the limit of vanishing damping, namely, in terms of matrix continued fractions. Thus both analytical and numerical results are obtained for the positions of the various multiple quantum resonances in the time-averaged as well as modulated interaction components. Specifically, the role of the orientation of the optical pump beam in magnetic-resonance configurations is investigated, and it is shown that there are several classes of resonances for which the behavior of the system is independent of the orientation of the pump beam. These are the geometries in which the static and oscillating magnetic fields are either orthogonal or parallel, the geometries leading to Haroche-like resonances (which, however, play a special role in modulated interaction components also), and a previously unknown class, labeled saddle-point resonances. However, other than for these special classes, the behavior of the system depends generally on the orientation of the optical pump beam, unlike as implied in some previous work on this problem. As in the recently studied case of a fully amplitude-modulated optical interaction [W. M. Ruyten, Phys. Rev. A 40, 1447 (1989)], it is found that the resonances in modulated interaction components are generally doubly branched, with one branch duplicating the resonances found in the time-averaged component. A new feature found for not-fully-amplitude-modulated and phase-modulated, off-resonance optical excitation (or magnetic resonance with nonparallel or nonorthogonal static and oscillating magnetic fields) is the occurrence of an extra type of resonance in modulated components of the interaction that cannot, like all other resonances of the system, be classified as power-shifted multiple quantum transitions.

• Received 19 March 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.42.4226