Coherent phase control of excitation of atoms by bichromatic laser radiation in an electric field

A new method for coherent phase control of excitation of atoms in a discrete spectrum under the action of bichromatic laser radiation with the frequency ratio 1 : 2 is analysed. An important feature of this control method is the presence of a electrostatic field, which removes the parity selection rule for one of the control channels. It is shown that for the phase difference between the monochromatic radiation components, corresponding to the destructive interference between channels, there exists the electrostatic field strength at which the excited atomic transition is `bleached'. It is proposed to use luminescence at the adjacent atomic transition for detecting the phase dependence of optical excitation.