Self-induced transparency assisted by electromagnetically induced transparency

We show the possibility of transparency and soliton effects for an intense pulse propagating in a V-type medium in which two upper resonant sublevels experience fast field-induced decay due to incoherent coupling to an upper lying state or continuum. The transparency arises as a result of the combined action of population trapping on the sublevels leading to interference suppression of the relaxation channel, and coherent Rabi cycling induced by the laser field.