Chirped excitation of optically-dense inhomogeneously broadened media using Eu³⁺:Y₂SiO₅

Novel pump-probe experiments provide practical, sensitive diagnostics of media inversion by linearly chirped optical pulses. Maxwell-Bloch simulations and Landau-Zener calculations support the experiments and provide a general prescription for inversion of hole-burning media by chirps. © 2002 Optical Society of America.