Electromagnetically induced transparency in N-level cascade schemes

We examine electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in cascade schemes with N levels and N - 1 fields. We show that transparency effects are present when N is odd and that destruction of EIT is present on line centre when N is even. We predict multiple dark resonances in such schemes due to multiphoton EIT effects. By examining atomic rubidium we propose methods of achieving such schemes by use of coupling rf fields into hyperfine levels. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.