Effects of permanent dipole moments in degenerate four-wave-mixing processes

The main goal of this paper is to analyze a two-photon degenerate four-wave-mixing process that occurs in an isotropic media modeled by homogeneously broadened two-level systems having unequal permanent dipole moments and subject to rotational diffusion. Our theoretical treatment is based upon a third-order perturbative solution of the density-matrix equations and does not require the rotating-wave approximation. The medium being excited by three stationary fields, we give an analytical expression of the macroscopic polarization up to the third order, including permanent dipole moments, orientational diffusion, and field polarizations. We apply these general results to the description of a degenerate four-wave-mixing process by selecting, in the expressions, the contributions in the direction ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{\alpha }}$-${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{\beta }}$+${\mathbf{k}}_{\gamma }$, ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{\alpha }}$, ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{\beta }}$, and ${\mathbf{k}}_{\gamma }$ being, respectively, the wave vectors of the exciting fields. We show that the two-photon degenerate four-wave mixing is dependent on the permanent dipole moments and is not present if these dipole moments are equal or zero. We analyze the influence of rotational diffusion. Different cases of field polarizations are also considered, and we discuss a comparison of the well-known one-photon degenerate four-wave-mixing process and this two-photon process. This process is also discussed in the particular case of phase conjugation.