Control of one- and two-photon absorption in a four-level atomic system by changing the amplitude and phase of a driving microwave field

We consider the one- and two-photon absorption spectra of a four-level Y-type atom with the two highest lying levels driven by a microwave field. We found that in the one-photon absorption case, the microwave field can lead to the probe gain, and the absorption and gain spectral structures depend strongly on the microwave field amplitude. For the two-photon absorption case, the strong microwave field can enhance the absorption. When the microwave field amplitude is reduced to a certain value, the single absorption peak in the two-photon spectrum changes into a structure of two-peak structure with different magnitudes. Moreover, the one- and two-photon absorption spectra can be modulated by the phase of the microwave field which produces a closed-loop configuration. Finally, we use the analytic solutions in terms of dressed-state basis to explain the results from our numerical calculation