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Physical Review A

Creation of arbitrary coherent superposition states by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

Z. Kis, Nikolay V. Vitanov, A. Karpati, Christian Barthel, Klaas Bergmann

Published Sep 9, 2005• 30 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A technique for creation of well-defined preselected coherent superpositions of multiple quantum states is proposed. It is based on an extension of the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) to degenerate levels. As an example, the nine-state system composed of the magnetic sublevels of three levels with angular momenta ${J}_{g}=0$, ${J}_{e}=1$, and ${J}_{f}=2$ is studied in detail. Starting from the $\ensuremath{\mid}{J}_{g}=0,{M}_{g}=0⟩$ state, STIRAP can create an arbitrary preselected coherent superposition between the five ${M}_{f}$ sublevels $({M}_{f}=\ensuremath{-}2,\ensuremath{-}1,0,+1,+2)$ of the ${J}_{f}=2$ level with 100% efficiency in the adiabatic limit. The populations and the phases of the ${M}_{f}$ states in this superposition are determined entirely by the polarizations of the two laser fields. It is shown that this technique allows one to create any superposition of the five ${M}_{f}$ states, that is, to reach any point in the Hilbert space of the ${J}_{f}=2$ manifold, and the corresponding recipes for choosing the laser polarizations are presented.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.72.033403

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A technique for creation of well-defined preselected coherent superpositions of multiple quantum states is proposed. It is based on an extension of the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) to degenerate levels. As an example, the nine-state system composed of the magnetic sublevels of three levels with angular momenta Jg=0{J}_{g}=0Jg​=0, Je=1{J}_{e}=1Je​=1, and Jf=2{J}_{f}=2Jf​=2 is studied in detail. Starting from the \ensuremath∣Jg=0,Mg=0⟩\ensuremath{\mid}{J}_{g}=0,{M}_{g}=0⟩\ensuremath∣Jg​=0,Mg​=0⟩ state, STIRAP can create an arbitrary preselected coherent superposition between the five Mf{M}_{f}Mf​ sublevels (Mf=\ensuremath−2,\ensuremath−1,0,+1,+2)({M}_{f}=\ensuremath{-}2,\ensuremath{-}1,0,+1,+2)(Mf​=\ensuremath−2,\ensuremath−1,0,+1,+2) of the Jf=2{J}_{f}=2Jf​=2 level with 100% efficiency in the adiabatic limit. The populations and the phases of the Mf{M}_{f}Mf​ states in this superposition are determined entirely by the polarizations of the two laser fields. It is shown that this technique allows one to create any superposition of the five Mf{M}_{f}Mf​ states, that is, to reach any point in the Hilbert space of the Jf=2{J}_{f}=2Jf​=2 manifold, and the corresponding recipes for choosing the laser polarizations are presented.
We present the theory for a technique, based on multistate variants of the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) process, that allows efficient and robust preparation of a preselected superposition of two or three degenerate states (magnetic sublevels of an atom) and the measurement of their relative amplitudes and phases. Because the preparation utilizes adiabatic passage it is robust against small fluctuations of the Rabi frequencies and temporal shapes of the coupling fields. We here describe and, in the following companion paper we demonstrate, an approach to the experimental characterization of the superposition state, i.e., the measurement of the relative phases and the ratios of amplitudes of the components. That technique, termed phase-to-population mapping, is applicable to the characterization of a stream of identically prepared atoms and is based on laser-induced fluorescence after the atoms have undergone optical pumping cycles induced by an additional laser. The optical pumping process maps the phase into populations of a subset of levels by means of a filtering laser field, and is robust against variations in the intensity and detuning of that field. We describe four linkage patterns appropriate to the creation of superpositions of two or three degenerate states of angular momentum J=2J=2J=2, starting from J=0J=0J=0. We offer an interpretation, from three different perspectives, of the subsequent characterization procedure.
We propose a scheme for creating coherent atomic superposition states via the technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in a Λ-type system where final states are composed of manifold of levels and the intermediate levels could be more than one level. If the pump pulses and Stokes pulses are kept in the same order of ordinary STIRAP, through the control the delay time between the Stokes pulses and pump pulse, we could create arbitrary superposition states in the manifold of levels.
We discuss the properties of a simple and robust scheme for preparing atoms and molecules in an arbitrary preselected coherent superposition of quantum states - fractional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (fractional STIRAP) - first proposed by Marte et al (1991 Phys. Rev. A 44 R4118). As in STIRAP, the Stokes pulse arrives before the pump pulse, but unlike STIRAP, here the two pulses terminate simultaneously, while maintaining a constant ratio of amplitudes. We extend earlier research and suggest a realization of this scheme with two smoothly varying delayed laser pulses (which can be derived from a single laser), the parameters of the created superposition being controlled by the polarization of the delayed pulse. Furthermore, we provide simple analytic estimates of the robustness of this process against variations in the laser intensity, laser frequency and pulse delay. Finally, we discuss an extension to multistate systems which provides a possibility for creating coherent superpositions of more than two states.
We discuss a simple scheme for preparing atoms and molecules in an arbitrary preselected coherent superposition of quantum states. The technique, which we call fractional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage ({\it f-STIRAP}), is based upon (incomplete) adiabatic population transfer between an initial state ψ1ψ_1ψ1​ and state ψ3ψ_3ψ3​ through an intermediate state ψ2ψ_2ψ2​. As in STIRAP, the Stokes pulse arrives before the pump pulse, but unlike STIRAP, the two pulses terminate simultaneously while maintaining a constant ratio of amplitudes. The independence of f-STIRAP from details of pulse shape and pulse area makes it the analog of conventional STIRAP in the creation of coherent superpositions of states. We suggest a smooth realization of f-STIRAP which requires only two laser pulses (which can be derived from a single laser) and at the same time ensures the automatic fulfillment of the asymptotic conditions at early and late times. Furthermore, we provide simple analytic estimates of the robustness of f-STIRAP against variations in the pulse intensity, the pulse delay, and the intermediate-state detuning, and discuss its possible extension to multistate systems.
We present experimental demonstrations of a technique, based on multistate variants of the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) process, that allows efficient and robust preparation of a preselected superposition of two or three degenerate states (magnetic sublevels of an atom) and the measurement of their relative amplitudes and phases. The experiments verify theoretical results described in the preceding paper. We perform our experiments with neon atoms in a supersonic beam: atoms in the metastable 3P0^{3}{P}_{0}3P0​ state are transferred to a superposition of the metastable 3P2^{3}{P}_{2}3P2​ magnetic sublevels, using four different linkage patterns. Because the preparation utilizes adiabatic passage, it is robust against small fluctuations of the Rabi frequencies and temporal shape of the coupling fields. The relative phases and the amplitude ratios of the components of the prepared superpositions are experimentally analyzed using a technique termed phase-to-population mapping. Phase-to-population mapping is based on laser-induced fluorescence after the atoms have undergone optical pumping cycles induced by an additional laser. The optical pumping process maps the superposition phases into populations of a subset of levels by means of a filtering laser field, and is robust against variations in the intensity and detuning of that field.
Multistate stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) is a process which allows for adiabatic population transfer between the two ends of a chainwise-connected quantum system. The process requires large temporal areas of the driving pulsed fields (pump and Stokes) in order to suppress the nonadiabatic couplings and thereby to make adiabatic evolution possible. To this end, in the present paper a variation of multistate STIRAP, which accelerates and improves the population transfer, is presented. In addition to the usual pump and Stokes fields it uses shortcut fields applied between the states, which form the dark state of the system. The shortcuts cancel the couplings between the dark state and the other adiabatic states thereby resulting (in the ideal case) in a unit transition probability between the two end states of the chain. Specific examples of five-state systems formed of the magnetic sublevels of the transitions between two degenerate levels with angular momenta Jg=2{J}_{g}=2Jg​=2 (of ground or lower level) and Je=1{J}_{e}=1Je​=1 or Je=2{J}_{e}=2Je​=2 (of excited or upper level) are considered in detail, for which the shortcut fields are derived analytically. The proposed method is simpler than the usual ``shortcuts to adiabaticity'' recipe, which prescribes shortcut fields between all states of the system, while the present proposal uses shortcut fields between the sublevels forming the dark state only. The results are of potential interest in applications where high-fidelity quantum control is essential, e.g., quantum information, atom optics, formation of ultracold molecules, cavity QED, etc.