Effects of Doppler broadening on Autler-Townes splitting in six-wave mixing

The effects of Doppler broadening on Autler-Townes (AT) splitting in six-wave mixing (SWM) are investigated by the dressed-state model. We analyze the velocities at which the atoms are in resonance with the dressed states through Doppler frequency shifting and find that, depending on the wave-number ratio, there may be two resonant velocities which can originate from resonance with one of the dressed states or from resonance with two different dressed states. Based on this model, we discuss a novel type of AT doublet in the SWM spectrum, where macroscopic effects play an important role. Specifically, the existence of resonant peaks requires polarization interference between atoms of different velocities in addition to a change in the number of resonant atoms involved. Our model can also be employed to analyze electromagnetically induced transparency resonance and other types of Doppler-free high-resolution AT spectroscopy.