Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:0906.1989 · Physical Review A

Optimum pulse shapes for stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

G. S. Vasilev, Axel Kuhn, Nikolay V. Vitanov

Published Jul 27, 2009• 123 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) driven with pulses of optimum shape and delay has the potential of reaching fidelities high enough to make it suitable for quantum-information processing. The optimum pulse shapes are obtained upon reduction of STIRAP to effective two-state systems. We use the Dykhne-Davis-Pechukas (DDP) method to minimize nonadiabatic transitions and to maximize the fidelity of STIRAP. This results in a particular relation between the pulse shapes of the two fields driving the Raman process. The DDP-optimized version of STIRAP maintains its robustness against variations in the pulse intensities and durations, the single-photon detuning, and possible losses from the intermediate state.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.80.013417

Related papers

Optimizing stimulated Raman adiabatic passage via Pontryagin’s principle

Xi-Lai Wang, Xiaoyu Dong, Wen-Long Ma

Abstract We conduct a systematic study to optimize the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) processes using Pontryagin’s principle. Pontryagin’s principle enables the incorporation of time- and fidelity-based optimization strategies into the traditional adiabatic processes. By incorporating an integral term of the intermediate state population into the cost function of either evolution time or target state fidelity, we can achieve either time-optimal or high-fidelity state transfer while maintaining minimal intermediate state occupation. This optimization method can also be superior to the shortcuts to adiabaticity control in either transfer speed or state fidelity, depending on the chosen cost function. Our method provides a systematic optimization strategy for the STIRAP process. Moreover, this approach is robust against the decoherence effect of the system caused by its surrounding environment, thereby enhancing the overall control performance and stability.

Chinese Physics B•Jan 14, 2026•0 citations

Optimization of multistate STIRAP by pulse shaping

Julian K. Dimitrov, Nikolay V. Vitanov

We propose a pulse-shaping method for improving population transfer in multistate stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) with nearest-neighbour couplings only. The method extends the quasiparallel-eigenenergy approach, previously used for two- and three-state systems, to multistate chains without introducing additional shortcut fields. The pump and Stokes fields are shaped so that the eigenenergies closest to the dark state remain nearly parallel to it during the central part of the interaction, where nonadiabatic transitions are most likely to occur. We derive analytic prescriptions for the required pulse shapes and apply them to five-, seven-, and nine-state chains formed by magnetic sublevels of degenerate manifolds with angular momenta $J_g\rightarrow J_e=J_g$ and $J_g\rightarrow J_e=J_g-1$ driven by a pair of right- and left-circularly polarized pulses. Numerical simulations show that the optimized pulses can reduce the population transfer error by several orders of magnitude compared to standard Gaussian pulses. The same shapes also improve robustness against variations of the peak Rabi frequency, the single-photon detuning, and the multiphoton detuning. The comparison between the two angular-momentum families shows that the $J_g\rightarrow J_g$ chains are generally more favourable, because their Clebsch-Gordan coefficients keep the relevant bright-state gap larger in the region where the dark state changes most rapidly. Finally, simulations with spontaneous emission show that the optimized resonant pulses remain advantageous in the lossy regime as well.

quant-pharXiv:2607.15915•Physical Review A•Jul 20, 2026•0 citations

Optimized pulse for stimulated Raman adiabatic passage on noisy experimental platform*

Zhiling Wang, Leiyinan Liu, Jian Cui

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is an important technique to manipulate quantum states in quantum simulation and quantum computation. The transformation fidelity is limited in reality due to experimental imperfections. After systematically calculating the influence of dissipation caused by thermal fluctuations and instantaneous decay of the intermediate state, we find optimized control pulses of Rydberg atom in optical tweezer to increase the STIRAP fidelity via optimal control method. All constraints of currently available control lasers have been taken into account. The transition error can be further depressed when control lasers with shorter rise time and accordingly proper total evolution time are applied. Finally, the robustness of the control pulses with respect to random deviations between the theoretical pulse shape and the implemented ones is also enhanced by additional rounds of optimizations based on ensemble averaged fidelity.

Chinese Physics B•Apr 29, 2021•0 citations

Optimal Pulse Design for Dissipative-Stimulated Raman Exact Passage

Kaipeng Liu, Dominique Sugny, Xi Chen +1 more

Quantum control of lossy systems is known to be achieved by adiabatic passage via an approximate dark state relatively immune to loss, such as the emblematic example of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) featuring a lossy excited state. By systematic optimal control study, via the Pontryagin maximum principle, we design alternative more efficient routes that, for a given admissible loss, feature an optimal transfer with respect to the cost defined as (i) the pulse energy (energy minimization) or (ii) the pulse duration (time minimization). The optimal controls feature remarkably simple sequences in the respective cases: (i) operating far from a dark state, of π-pulse type in the limit of low admissible loss, or (ii) close to the dark state with a counterintuitive pulse configuration sandwiched by sharp intuitive sequences, referred to as the intuitive/counterintuitive/intuitive (ICI) sequence. In the case of time optimization, the resulting stimulated Raman exact passage (STIREP) outperforms STIRAP in term of speed, accuracy, and robustness for low admissible loss.

Entropy•May 12, 2023•10 citations

Transition time in the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage technique

Iavor I. Boradjiev, Nikolay V. Vitanov

The technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is an efficient and robust technique for population transfer in three-state chain-wise connected quantum systems, 1-2-3. Here we analyze the transition time in STIRAP, that is the time it takes for the population to be transferred from state 1 to state 3. We derive a very simple formula for this transition time, which shows that it is inversely proportional to the nonadiabatic coupling $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\vartheta}\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}({t}_{c})$, estimated at the time ${t}_{c}$ when the pump and Stokes couplings have the same value. Explicit formulas for several pulse shapes of the pump and Stokes fields are derived. Contrary to the naive expectation that the transition time might be proportional to the delay between the pump and Stokes pulses, or to the width of their overlap region, we find that the transition time is inversely proportional to the delay, i.e., larger delays produce faster transitions. We also calculate the transition time in two important variations of the STIRAP technique---bright-STIRAP and STIRAP in multistate systems---where similar features are found.

Physical Review A•Oct 8, 2010•14 citations

Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a two-state system

Nikolay V. Vitanov, Bruce W. Shore

We present a method, using adiabatic passage, for creating a maximally coherent superposition in a two-state atom. The method exploits the analogy between the two-state Bloch equations and the three-state stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) equations, and uses two sequential but overlapping pulsed fields, a driving pump pulse and a delayed but overlapped detuning pulse. Like STIRAP, this method is robustly insensitive to small changes in pulse properties.

Physical Review A•May 2, 2006•67 citations
Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) driven with pulses of optimum shape and delay has the potential of reaching fidelities high enough to make it suitable for quantum-information processing. The optimum pulse shapes are obtained upon reduction of STIRAP to effective two-state systems. We use the Dykhne-Davis-Pechukas (DDP) method to minimize nonadiabatic transitions and to maximize the fidelity of STIRAP. This results in a particular relation between the pulse shapes of the two fields driving the Raman process. The DDP-optimized version of STIRAP maintains its robustness against variations in the pulse intensities and durations, the single-photon detuning, and possible losses from the intermediate state.
Abstract We conduct a systematic study to optimize the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) processes using Pontryagin’s principle. Pontryagin’s principle enables the incorporation of time- and fidelity-based optimization strategies into the traditional adiabatic processes. By incorporating an integral term of the intermediate state population into the cost function of either evolution time or target state fidelity, we can achieve either time-optimal or high-fidelity state transfer while maintaining minimal intermediate state occupation. This optimization method can also be superior to the shortcuts to adiabaticity control in either transfer speed or state fidelity, depending on the chosen cost function. Our method provides a systematic optimization strategy for the STIRAP process. Moreover, this approach is robust against the decoherence effect of the system caused by its surrounding environment, thereby enhancing the overall control performance and stability.
We propose a pulse-shaping method for improving population transfer in multistate stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) with nearest-neighbour couplings only. The method extends the quasiparallel-eigenenergy approach, previously used for two- and three-state systems, to multistate chains without introducing additional shortcut fields. The pump and Stokes fields are shaped so that the eigenenergies closest to the dark state remain nearly parallel to it during the central part of the interaction, where nonadiabatic transitions are most likely to occur. We derive analytic prescriptions for the required pulse shapes and apply them to five-, seven-, and nine-state chains formed by magnetic sublevels of degenerate manifolds with angular momenta Jg→Je=JgJ_g\rightarrow J_e=J_gJg​→Je​=Jg​ and Jg→Je=Jg−1J_g\rightarrow J_e=J_g-1Jg​→Je​=Jg​−1 driven by a pair of right- and left-circularly polarized pulses. Numerical simulations show that the optimized pulses can reduce the population transfer error by several orders of magnitude compared to standard Gaussian pulses. The same shapes also improve robustness against variations of the peak Rabi frequency, the single-photon detuning, and the multiphoton detuning. The comparison between the two angular-momentum families shows that the Jg→JgJ_g\rightarrow J_gJg​→Jg​ chains are generally more favourable, because their Clebsch-Gordan coefficients keep the relevant bright-state gap larger in the region where the dark state changes most rapidly. Finally, simulations with spontaneous emission show that the optimized resonant pulses remain advantageous in the lossy regime as well.
Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is an important technique to manipulate quantum states in quantum simulation and quantum computation. The transformation fidelity is limited in reality due to experimental imperfections. After systematically calculating the influence of dissipation caused by thermal fluctuations and instantaneous decay of the intermediate state, we find optimized control pulses of Rydberg atom in optical tweezer to increase the STIRAP fidelity via optimal control method. All constraints of currently available control lasers have been taken into account. The transition error can be further depressed when control lasers with shorter rise time and accordingly proper total evolution time are applied. Finally, the robustness of the control pulses with respect to random deviations between the theoretical pulse shape and the implemented ones is also enhanced by additional rounds of optimizations based on ensemble averaged fidelity.
Quantum control of lossy systems is known to be achieved by adiabatic passage via an approximate dark state relatively immune to loss, such as the emblematic example of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) featuring a lossy excited state. By systematic optimal control study, via the Pontryagin maximum principle, we design alternative more efficient routes that, for a given admissible loss, feature an optimal transfer with respect to the cost defined as (i) the pulse energy (energy minimization) or (ii) the pulse duration (time minimization). The optimal controls feature remarkably simple sequences in the respective cases: (i) operating far from a dark state, of π-pulse type in the limit of low admissible loss, or (ii) close to the dark state with a counterintuitive pulse configuration sandwiched by sharp intuitive sequences, referred to as the intuitive/counterintuitive/intuitive (ICI) sequence. In the case of time optimization, the resulting stimulated Raman exact passage (STIREP) outperforms STIRAP in term of speed, accuracy, and robustness for low admissible loss.
The technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is an efficient and robust technique for population transfer in three-state chain-wise connected quantum systems, 1-2-3. Here we analyze the transition time in STIRAP, that is the time it takes for the population to be transferred from state 1 to state 3. We derive a very simple formula for this transition time, which shows that it is inversely proportional to the nonadiabatic coupling $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\vartheta}\ifmmode \dot{}\else \.{}\fi{}}({t}_{c})$, estimated at the time tc{t}_{c}tc​ when the pump and Stokes couplings have the same value. Explicit formulas for several pulse shapes of the pump and Stokes fields are derived. Contrary to the naive expectation that the transition time might be proportional to the delay between the pump and Stokes pulses, or to the width of their overlap region, we find that the transition time is inversely proportional to the delay, i.e., larger delays produce faster transitions. We also calculate the transition time in two important variations of the STIRAP technique---bright-STIRAP and STIRAP in multistate systems---where similar features are found.