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Physical Review Letters

Approaching Optimal Light Evolution at Adiabaticity Control Limit in Inverse-Designed Waveguides

Xuanyu Liu, Wange Song, Jiacheng Sun, Shengjie Wu, Yichen Zhu, Zhiyuan Lin, Chunyu Huang, Shining Zhu, Tao Li

Published Dec 1, 2025• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Controlling state evolution via adiabaticity has attracted significant interest for its vital role in quantum and photonic applications. However, attaining the adiabaticity control limit (ACL)-defined as the shortest possible duration with minimal mode crosstalk during evolution-remains a significant challenge. In this Letter, we address this issue by introducing an inverse adiabaticity control strategy, where the tolerable crosstalk serves as a control parameter. Taking the stimulated raman adiabatic passage as an example, we demonstrate the principle of inverse adiabaticity control and determine the map of optimal solution under various parameter constraints. The effectiveness and superiority of the inverse design strategy are experimentally demonstrated in silicon photonic waveguides. Crucially, we show that ACL solutions can achieve both the fastest and most robust evolution simultaneously, overcoming the usual tradeoff in conventional forward-designed structures and meeting key needs for photonic and quantum computing devices. The inverse control method offers a universal strategy that may be applicable across a wide range of physical settings.

DOI
10.1103/zwt9-79zy

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Controlling state evolution via adiabaticity has attracted significant interest for its vital role in quantum and photonic applications. However, attaining the adiabaticity control limit (ACL)-defined as the shortest possible duration with minimal mode crosstalk during evolution-remains a significant challenge. In this Letter, we address this issue by introducing an inverse adiabaticity control strategy, where the tolerable crosstalk serves as a control parameter. Taking the stimulated raman adiabatic passage as an example, we demonstrate the principle of inverse adiabaticity control and determine the map of optimal solution under various parameter constraints. The effectiveness and superiority of the inverse design strategy are experimentally demonstrated in silicon photonic waveguides. Crucially, we show that ACL solutions can achieve both the fastest and most robust evolution simultaneously, overcoming the usual tradeoff in conventional forward-designed structures and meeting key needs for photonic and quantum computing devices. The inverse control method offers a universal strategy that may be applicable across a wide range of physical settings.
Adiabatic quantum-control schemes are widely used in the areas of quantum-information processing and quantum sensing. The very requirement of adiabaticity in these schemes often leads to problems of low efficiency and being sensitive to decoherence. To address such issues, various methods have been developed for accelerating adiabatic processes, but they often need to be designed on an adhocad\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}hocadhoc basis. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an inverse-engineering approach, where a parameterized state of the Schr\"odinger equation is employed for constructing desired evolutions. Within a single and simple frame, the user-defined passages can be flexibly customized for different objectives and systems. To experimentally benchmark its performance, we implement this approach in a task of coherent state transfer in a superconducting Xmon device. We find that our method completed the transfer with the fastest speed and highest efficiency (>99.5%) among all recent experiments performed in similar configurations.
The challenge to fully grasp and to harness the bizarre phenomena which take place in the quantum realm is crucially linked to the ability to engineer and manipulate quantum systems with high precision. The scientific progress in this direction is opening new routes for the investigation of fundamental quantum physics, and it is at the same time paving the way to the development of the first quantum technologies. \n\nThis thesis is dedicated to the search of strategies for high-fidelity and noise-tolerant quantum control.\nA versatile theoretical framework is set up for the design of optimized control protocols based on accelerated adiabatic processes. The benefits of the adiabatic dynamics, rooted in its intrinsic stability versus control imperfections, are released from the requirement of slow evolution: this is achieved thanks to the theoretical construction of accelerating control Hamiltonians which dynamically counteract deviations from the target dynamics. Our framework provides a methodical way to engineer these Hamiltonians by introducing fast modulations of the initially-available control parameters, and it results from the interplay between the theory of counterdiabatic fields and Floquet-Magnus average Hamiltonian theory. As compared to other shortcut-to-adiabaticity strategies, our control method keeps the system always close to the exact adiabatic path while not requiring the implementation of new Hamiltonian couplings. Moreover, the flexibility in the construction of the accelerating Hamiltonians offers a fertile ground for the hybridization with optimal control techniques.\n\nThe general setup is applied to exemplary control problems of relevance in quantum optics and quantum information processing. First, a protocol is designed for the generation of entanglement between effective two-level systems coupled through a transmission line, in the experimental context of circuit quantum electrodynamics. Second, an accelerated version of the widespread technique of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage is presented, which dramatically enlarges its range of applicability for implementations both in the optical and in the microwave regime.\n\nThe results strongly support the potential of the quantum control framework developed in this thesis. In particular, our methodology offers the opportunity to flank high fidelities and small error sensitivity with on-demand adaptability to experimental constraints and the flexibility for integrations with other control techniques. This makes it a valuable resource for applications in many branches of quantum science, with a natural outlet in quantum computation and simulation.
The stimulated Raman adiabatic passage shows an efficient technique that accurately transfers population between two discrete quantum states with the same parity in three-level quantum systems based on adiabatic evolution. This technique has widely theoretical and experimental applications in many fields of physics, chemistry, and beyond. Here, we present a general approach to robust stimulated Raman shortcut-to-adiabatic passage with invariant-based optimal control. By controlling the dynamical process, we inversely design a family of Hamiltonians with non-divergent Rabi frequencies that can realize fast and accurate population transfer from the first to the third level, while the systematic errors are largely suppressed in general. Furthermore, a detailed trade-off relation between the population of the intermediate state and the amplitudes of Rabi frequencies in the transfer process is illustrated. These results provide an optimal route toward manipulating the evolution of three-level quantum systems in future quantum information processing.
Abstract We investigate the adiabatic evolution of light in nonlinear waveguide couplers via resonance-locked inverse engineering based on stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). The longitudinal varying propagation coefficients of the waveguides are designed to eliminate dynamically the nonlinear effect, which induce the non-adiabatic oscillations. We show that different light evolutions such as complete light transfer, light split and light return can be realized adiabatically with appropriate choices of the detunings even in the nonlinear regime. The features open new opportunities for the realization of all-optical nonlinear devices with high fidelity in integrated optics.
Abstract We discuss in this paper the optical analog to rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) and two-state stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in coupled waveguides with nonlinearity. With the increase of the power of light propagating in waveguides, the nonlinearity can significantly prevent the two adiabatic passages from being successfully simulated. Nevertheless, we find that the negative role of the nonlinearity can be avoided under the assistance of the method of resonance-locked inverse engineering. The method implies redesigning the longitudinally varying detuning of the propagation constants. We further point out that the variation of the detuning does not have to be exactly the same as what the method suggests. As long as the detuning has similar trend to what the method shows, the RAP and two-state STIRAP can still be realized in nonlinear waveguides. This makes the waveguide structure more simpler. Based on our study, the applications of two-state adiabatic passages in designing directional couplers and beam splitters are extended from linear to nonlinear waveguides.
The stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) shows an efficient technique that accurately transfers population between two discrete quantum states with the same parity, in three-level quantum systems based on adiabatic evolution. This technique has widely theoretical and experimental applications in many fields of physics, chemistry, and beyond. Here, we present a generally robust approach to speed up STIRAP with invariant-based shortcut to adiabaticity. By controlling the dynamical process, we inversely design a family of Hamiltonians that can realize fast and accurate population transfer from the first to the third level, while the systematic error is largely suppressed in general. Furthermore, a detailed trade-off relation between the population of the intermediate state and the amplitudes of Rabi frequencies in the transfer process is illustrated. These results provide an optimal route toward manipulating the evolution of three-level quantum systems in future quantum information processing.