Power broadening of a diffusion resonance

We derive an expression in terms of cylinder functions for the shape of a nonlinear resonance in a two-level system with a rapidly decaying level. We show that when the natural linewidth is negligible, the square of the total width is the sum of squares of the power and diffusion widths. The traditional variational approximation yields a correct value for the full width at half maximum, but distorts the line profile. We derive a formula for the absorbed power as a function of the incident wave intensity for comparable power and diffusion broadening. The formula is found to be valid for a power width that is small or large compared to the diffusion width, and in a new intermediate domain where homogeneous saturation becomes inhomogeneous. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. @S1063-7761~98!00605-2#