Rabi frequency

The Rabi frequency is the radian frequency of the Rabi cycle undergone for a given atomic transition in a given light field. This is thus the frequency of fluctuations in the populations of the two atomic levels involved in that atomic transition in that situation. It is proportional to the strength of the coupling between the light and the atomic transition and to the amplitude (not intensity) of the light's electric field. Rabi flopping between the levels of a 2-level system illuminated with light exactly resonant with the transition will occur at the Rabi frequency; when the incident light is detuned from resonance then this occurs at the generalized Rabi frequency. The Rabi frequency is a semiclassical concept as it is based on a quantum atomic transition and a classical light field. The Rabi frequency is the radian frequency of the Rabi cycle undergone for a given atomic transition in a given light field. This is thus the frequency of fluctuations in the populations of the two atomic levels involved in that atomic transition in that situation. It is proportional to the strength of the coupling between the light and the atomic transition and to the amplitude (not intensity) of the light's electric field. Rabi flopping between the levels of a 2-level system illuminated with light exactly resonant with the transition will occur at the Rabi frequency; when the incident light is detuned from resonance then this occurs at the generalized Rabi frequency. The Rabi frequency is a semiclassical concept as it is based on a quantum atomic transition and a classical light field. In the context of a nuclear magnetic resonance experiment, the Rabi frequency is the nutation frequency of a sample's net nuclear magnetization vector about a radiofrequency field. (Note that this is distinct from the Larmor frequency, which characterizes the precession of a transverse nuclear magnetization about a static magnetic field.)