Coherent effects in the relaxation dynamics of a multilevel quantum system excited by ultrashort light pulses

Interference effects in luminescence produced by short light pulse excitation of a single quantum level interacting with a quasi-continuum of background states have been considered. Different regimes of subsequent luminescence quenching are revealed and analytically studied in a unified way: radiationless decay controlled emission, multiple repetitions of the initial pulse form, anharmonic dephasing and following revival, etc. (orig.)