We report on an experimental investigation of rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) in a trapped barium ion system. RAP is implemented on the transition from the $6S_{1/2}$ ground state to the metastable $5D_{5/2}$ level by applying a laser at 1.76 $μ$m. We focus on the interplay of laser frequency noise and laser power in shaping the effectiveness of RAP, which is commonly assumed to be a robust tool for high efficiency population transfer. However, we note that reaching high state transfer fidelity requires a combination of small laser linewidth and large Rabi frequency.
The passage of cold cesium 49S$_{1/2}$ Rydberg atoms through an electric-field-induced multi-level avoided crossing with nearby hydrogen-like Rydberg levels is employed to prepare a cold, dipolar Rydberg atom gas. When the electric field is ramped through the avoided crossing on time scales on the order of 100~ns or slower, the 49S$_{1/2}$ population adiabatically transitions into high-\emph{l} Rydberg Stark states. The adiabatic state transformation results in a cold gas of Rydberg atoms with large electric dipole moments. After a waiting time of about $1~μ$s and at sufficient atom density, t…
We report the achievement of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in the microwave frequency range between internal states of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) magnetically trapped in the vicinity of an atom chip. The STIRAP protocol used in this experiment is robust to external perturbations as it is an adiabatic transfer, and power-efficient as it involves only resonant (or quasi-resonant) processes. Taking into account the effect of losses and collisions in a non-linear Bloch equations model, we show that the maximum transfer efficiency is obtained for non-zero values of the one- and …
We demonstrate that by changing the direction of the chirp in VUV pulses one can switch between excitation and ionization with very high contrast, if the carrier frequency of the light is resonant with two bound states. This is a surprising consequence if rapid adiabatic passage is extended to include transitions to the continuum. The chirp phase locks the linear combination of two resonantly coupled bound states whose ionization amplitudes interfere constructively or destructively depending on the chirp direction under suitable conditions. We derive the phenomenon in a minimal model and verif…
The results of simulations of cooling based on Sawtooth-Wave Adiabatic Passage (SWAP) are presented including the possibility of population leaking to states outside of the cycling transition. The amount of population leaking can be substantially suppressed compared to Doppler cooling, which could be useful for systems that are difficult to repump back to the cycling transition. The suppression of the leaked population was more effective when simulating the slowing of a beam than in cooling a thermal distribution. As expected, calculations of the leaked population versus branching ratio of spo…
We present a magnetically enhanced laser cooling scheme applicable to multi-level type-II transitions and further diatomic molecules with adiabatic transfer. An angled magnetic field is introduced to not only remix the dark states, but also decompose the multi-level system into several two-level sub-systems in time-ordering, hence allowing multiple photon momentum transfer. For complex multi-level diatomic molecules, although the enhancement gets weakened, our simulations still predict a $\sim 4\times$ larger value of the maximum achievable cooling force and a wider coolable velocity range com…
We develop a multi-photon adiabatic passage to realize a highly efficient Rydberg excitation in a four-level ladder-type atomic system. The adiabatic passage is based on the existence of a novel quasi-dark state in the cascade excitation system where the frequencies of the lasers are appropriately chirped with time. We also investigate the influence of the interatomic Rydberg interaction on the passage and extend its application to the preparation of anti-blockade Rydberg atom pairs in the Rydberg blockade regime.
We review methods for coherently controlling Rydberg quantum states of atomic ensembles using Adiabatic Rapid Passage and Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage. These methods are commonly used for population inversion in simple two-level and three-level systems. We show that adiabatic techniques allow us to control population and phase dynamics of complex entangled states of mesoscopic atomic ensembles for quantum information processing with Rydberg atoms. We also propose several schemes of single-qubit and two-qubit gates based on adiabatic passage, Rydberg blockade and Förster resonances in Ryd…
We propose a directional coupler exploiting the framework of adiabatic passage for two level atomic systems with configuration dependent Allen-Eberly scheme. Recently developed shortcut to adiabatic passage method (STA), which uses transitionless quantum driving algorithm, is applied to the coupler. The study shows that it is possible to reduce the device length significantly using STA, keeping the efficiency of power transfer100%.Shortcut approach shows much superiority in terms of robustness and fidelity in power switching compared to the adiabatic one.
We considered the two-photon adiabatic rapid passage excitation of a single atom from the ground to a Rydberg state. Three schemes were analyzed: both pump and Stokes fields chirped and pulsed, only the pump field is chirped, and only the pump field is pulsed and chirped while the Stokes field is continuous wave (CW). In all three cases high transfer efficiencies $>99\%$ were achieved for the experimentally realizable Rabi frequencies and the pulse durations of the fields.
A semiclassical, four-level model of a nanosecond, chirped pulse interacting with all optically accessible hyperfine states in the ultracold Rb atom is analyzed aiming at population inversion within $5S_{1/2}$ electronic state. The nature of two-photon adiabatic passage performed by such a single pulse having a bandwidth smaller than the hyperfine splitting of $5S_{1/2}$ state is investigated in the framework of the dressed state picture. It is shown that two dressed states are involved in the adiabatic dynamics of population inversion. The excited state manifold appeared to play an important …
The Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) procedure is a robust and complete population transfer method which have various application in chemistry and atomic physics. Here, we study the effects of one-photon detuning, transition time, pulse width, and pulse delay parameters on the population transfer via STIRAP and b-STIRAP techniques. Moreover, the impact of the field amplitude which decreases the population transfer has been analyzed and it is shown that in b-STIRAP, the robustness of the complete transition can be improved by decreasing the field amplitude in the single-photon resona…
Using numerical simulations of two-photon electronic absorption with femtosecond pulses in Na$_2$ we show that: i) it is possible to avoid the characteristic saturation or dumped Rabi oscillations in the yield of absorption by time-delaying the laser pulses; ii) it is possible to accelerate the onset of adiabatic passage by using the vibrational coherence starting in a wave packet; and iii) it is possible to prepare the initial wave packet in order to achieve full state-selective transitions with broadband pulses. The findings can be used, for instance, to achieve ultrafast adiabatic passage b…
Spatial adiabatic passage processes for ultracold atoms trapped in tunnel-coupled cylindrically symmetric concentric potentials are investigated. Specifically, we discuss the matter-wave analogue of the rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) technique for a high fidelity and robust loading of a single atom into a harmonic ring potential from a harmonic trap, and for its transport between two concentric rings. We also consider a system of three concentric rings and investigate the transport of a single atom between the innermost and the outermost rings making use of the matter-wave analogue of the stimu…
We provide a theoretical analysis for a recently demonstrated cooling method. Two-level particles undergo successive adiabatic transfers upon interaction with counter-propagating laser beams that are repeatedly swept over the transition frequency. We show that particles with narrow linewidth transitions can be cooled to near the recoil limit. This cooling mechanism has a reduced reliance on spontaneous emission compared to Doppler cooling, and hence shows promise for application to systems lacking closed cycling transitions, such as molecules.
The development of advanced quantum technologies and the quest for a deeper understanding of many-particle quantum mechanics requires control over the quantum state of interacting particles to a high degree of fidelity. However, the quickly increasing density of the spectrum, together with the appearance of crossings in time-dependent processes, makes any effort to control the system hard and resource intensive. Here we show that in trapped systems regimes can exist, in which isolated energy bands appear that allow to easily generalize known single-particle techniques. We demonstrate this for …
We study the many-body dynamics of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in the presence of on-site interactions. In the classical mean-field limit, explored in Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 121}, 250405 (2018), interaction-induced chaos leads to the breakdown of adiabaticity under the quasi-static variation of the parameters, thus producing {\em low} sweep rate boundaries on efficient population transfer. We show that for the corresponding many-body system, alternative quantum pathways from the initial to the target state, open up at even slower sweep rates. These quantum detours avoid the chaotic class…
We implement high-efficiency coherent excitation to a Rydberg state using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a cold atom electron and ion source. We achieve an efficiency of 60% averaged over the laser excitation volume with a peak efficiency of 82%, a 1.6 times improvement relative to incoherent pulsed-laser excitation. Using pulsed electric field ionization of the Rydberg atoms we create electron bunches with durations of 250 ps. High-efficiency excitation will increase source brightness, crucial for ultrafast electron diffraction experiments, and coherent excitation to high-lying Rydberg…
In an atomic ensemble, quantum information is typically carried as single collective excitations. It is very advantageous if the creation of single excitations is efficient and robust. Rydberg blockade enables deterministic creation of single excitations via collective Rabi oscillation by precisely controlling the pulse area, being sensitive to many experimental parameters. In this paper, we implement the adiabatic rapid passage technique to the Rydberg excitation process in a mesoscopic atomic ensemble. We make use of a two-photon excitation scheme with an intermediate state off-resonant and …
Adiabatic passage techniques, used to drive a system from one quantum state into another, find widespread application in physics and chemistry. We focus on techniques to spatially transport a quantum amplitude over a strongly coupled system, such as STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) and Coherent Tunnelling by Adiabatic Passage (CTAP). Previous results were shown to work on certain graphs, such as linear chains, square and triangular lattices, and branched chains. We prove that similar protocols work much more generally, in a large class of (semi-)bipartite graphs. In particular, unde…
We investigate theoretically the application of Sawtooth Wave Adiabatic Passage (SWAP) in a 1D magneto-optical trap (MOT). As opposed to related methods that have been previously discussed, our approach utilizes repeated cycles of stimulated absorption and emission processes to achieve both trapping and cooling, thereby reducing the adverse effects that arise from photon scattering. Specifically, we demonstrate this method's ability to cool, slow, and trap particles with fewer spontaneously emitted photons, higher forces and in less time when compared to a traditional MOT scheme that utilizes …
We develop a scheme for deterministic generation of an entangled state between two atoms on different Rydberg states via a chirped adiabatic passage, which directly connects the initial ground and target entangled states and also does not request the normally needed blockade effect. The occupancy of intermediate states suffers from a strong reduction via two pulses with proper time-dependent detunings and the electromagnetically induced transparency condition. By solving the analytical expressions of eigenvalues and eigenstates of a two-atom system, we investigate the optimal parameters for gu…
We report on sawtooth wave adiabatic passage (SWAP) slowing of bosonic and fermionic dysprosium isotopes by using a 136 kHz wide transition at 626 nm. A beam of precooled atoms is further decelerated in one dimension by the SWAP force and the amount of atoms at near zero velocity is measured. We demonstrate that the SWAP slowing can be twice as fast as in a conventional optical molasses operated on the same transition. In addition, we investigate the parameter range for which the SWAP force is efficiently usable in our set-up, and relate the results to the adiabaticity condition. Furthermore, …
High-fidelity entangled Bell states are of great interest in quantum physics. Entanglement of ultracold neutral atoms in two spatially separated optical dipole traps is promising for implementation of quantum computing and quantum simulation and for investigation of Bell states of material objects. We propose a new method to entangle two atoms via long-range Rydberg-Rydberg interaction. Alternatively to previous approaches, based on Rydberg blockade, we consider radiofrequency-assisted Stark-tuned Förster resonances in Rb Rydberg atoms. To reduce the sensitivity of the fidelity of Bell states …