Transient responses of transparency in a far-off resonant atomic system

Transient coherent oscillations in a closed Λ system under far-off resonant Raman fields were investigated theoretically. It has been found that the coherent superposition of the ground states can be formed due to the absorption even for initial maximal mixed ground states. The absorption oscillates with a period depending on the two-photon detuning when the system is initially in a transparent state and the two-photon Raman detuning is suddenly changed. The amplitude of the absorption decays with the decay rate of the ground states, which is different from the case when the lasers are applied resonantly. These transient coherent oscillations can be used to measure the relaxation rate of the ground states.