The four-wave mixing susceptibility chi((3))(omega(1), omega(1), -omega(2)) of a system of two-level atoms driven by weak external fields of frequencies omega(1) and omega(2) in a high-Q cavity is evaluated in the presence of atomic collisions. That susceptibility exhibits resonances corresponding to dipole-allowed transitions between the first two excited manifolds of the dressed states and the ground state and also the collision-induced Bloembergen resonances. The resonances corresponding to transitions between the first two manifolds of excited states that characterize the quantum and nonlinear nature of the atom-field interaction are, however, flattened in the absence of collisions. The collisions thus induce the quantum effects in four-wave mixing in a high-Q cavity. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.
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