The effect of phase noise of bichromatic radiation upon resonances of coherent population trapping

We consider the effect of the noise difference phase of a bichromatic field upon coherent population trapping resonances in the simplest three-level system in Λ configuration. The quasi-stationary solution of Bloch optical equations, which was found with some assumptions, shows that the presence of exciting short-correlated fluctuations of the phase of radiation reduces the contrast of the resonance line without affecting its spectral width. For the Gaussian phase noise the contrast suppression factor is χ = exp[?? _rms ² ], where ? _rms ² is phase dispersion. The experimental results obtained earlier by our group are analyzed.