Delayed four- and six-wave mixing in a coherently prepared atomic ensemble

We report on the simultaneous observation, by delayed Bragg diffraction, of four- and six-wave mixing processes in a coherently prepared atomic ensemble consisting of cold cesium atoms. For each diffracted order, we observe different temporal pulse shapes and dependencies with the intensities of the exciting fields, evidencing the different mechanisms involved in each process. The various observations are well described by a simplified analytical theory, which considers the atomic system as an ensemble of three-level atoms in Λ configuration.