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Sideband manipulation of population inversion in a three-level A atomic configuration is investigated theoretically. Compared with the case of a nearly monochromatic field, a population inversion between an excited state and a ground state has been found in a wide sideband intensity range by increasing the difference in frequency between three components. Furthermore, the population inversion can be controlled by the sum of the relative phases of the sideband components of the trichromatic pump field with respective to the phase of the central component. Changing the sum phase from 0 to π, the population inversion between the excited state and the ground state can increase within nearly half of the sideband intensity range. At the same time, the sideband intensity range that corresponds to the system exhibiting inversion ρ00 > ρ11 also becomes wider evidently.

We present a quantum-theoretical treatment of cavity linewidth narrowing with intracavity electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). By means of intracavity EIT, the photons in the cavity are in the form of cavity polaritons: bright-state polariton and dark-state polariton. Strong coupling of the bright-state polariton to the excited state induces an effect known as vacuum Rabi splitting, whereas the dark-state polariton decoupled from the excited state induces a narrow cavity transmission window. Our analysis would provide a quantum theory of linewidth narrowing with a quantum field pulse.