Strong enhancement of the lifetime of a resonance state by using a combination of two laser pulses

The lifetime of a resonance state overlapping with a second resonance is shown to be strongly enhanced (by a factor of 3) by combining two pump pulses to simultaneously excite the two resonances. Such an enhancement is produced by interference effects occurring between the two coherently excited overlapping resonances. A high degree of control on the intensity of interference, and thus on the resonance lifetime enhancement, is found to be achieved by varying the delay time between the pulses and their relative intensities.This work was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, ́ Spain, Grant No. FIS2010-18132, the Consolider program, Grant No. CSD2007-00013, and the COST Action program, Grant No. CM1002.Peer Reviewe