Linear optics, Raman scattering, and spin noise spectroscopy.

Spin noise spectroscopy (SNS) is a new method for studying magnetic resonance and spin dynamics that has gained, in the last several years, a considerable popularity. The method is based on measuring magnetization noise of a paramagnet using the Faraday rotation technique. In strong contrast with methods of nonlinear optics, the spectroscopy of spin noise is considered to be essentially nonperturbative. At the same time, presently, it became clear that the SNS, as an optical technique, demonstrates abilities lying far beyond the bounds of conventional linear optics. Specifically, the SNS allows one to penetrate inside an inhomogeneously broadened absorption band and to determine its homogeneous width, to realize a sort of pump-probe spectroscopy without any optical nonlinearity, to probe a bulk inhomogeneous medium by focal point of a probe beam, etc. This may seem especially puzzling when taken into account that SNS can be considered just as a version of Raman spectroscopy, which is known to be deprived of such abilities. Understanding of these paradoxical features of SNS technique is required for the present-day applications of SNS and its further development. In this paper, we present a general analysis of this apparent inconsistency from the viewpoint of distinction between spectroscopy of the light intensity and of the light field and provide its resolution.