Physical Review A
Phase control of nonadiabatic optical transitions
F. A. Hashmi, M. A. Bouchène
Abstract
We theoretically study the interaction of two time delayed, phase-locked, and nonresonant pulses with a two-level system in the strong field regime. The population transfer is shown to be extremely sensitive to the phase shift $\ensuremath{\phi}$ between the pulses, with efficient population transfer taking place only for $\ensuremath{\phi}$ close to $\ensuremath{\pi}$. This effect is explained in terms of nonadiabatic jump and rapid adiabatic passage phenomena.