Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage into continuum

We propose a technique which produces nearly complete ionization of the population of a discrete state coupled to a continuum by a two-photon transition via a lossy intermediate state whose lifetime is much shorter than the interaction duration. We show that using counterintuitively ordered pulses, as in stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP), wherein the pulse coupling the intermediate state to the continuum precedes and partly overlaps the pulse coupling the initial and intermediate states, greatly increases the ionization signal and strongly reduces the population loss due to spontaneous emission through the lossy state. For strong spontaneous emission from that state, however, the ionization is never complete because the dark state required for STIRAP does not exist. We demonstrate that this drawback can be eliminated almost completely by creating a laser-induced continuum structure (LICS) by embedding a third discrete state into the continuum with a third control laser. This LICS introduces some coherence into the continuum, which enables a STIRAP-like population transfer into the continuum. A highly accurate analytic description is developed and numerical results are presented for Gaussian pulse shapes

An achromatic polarization retarder realized with slowly varying linear and circular birefringence

Using the phenomena of linear and circular birefringence we propose a device that can alter general elliptical polarization of a beam by a predetermined amount, thereby allowing conversion between linearly-polarized light and circularly polarized light or changes to the handedness of the polarization. Based on an analogy with two-state adiabatic following of quantum optics, the proposed device is insensitive to the frequency of the light -- it serves as an achromatic polarization retarder

Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) Among Degenerate-Level Manifolds

We examine the conditions needed to accomplish stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) when the three levels (g, e and f) are degenerate, with arbitrary couplings contributing to the pump-pulse interaction (g - e) and to the Stokes-pulse interaction (e-f). We show that in general a sufficient condition for complete population removal from the g set of degenerate states for arbitrary, pure or mixed, initial state is that the degeneracies should not decrease along the sequence g, e and f. We show that when this condition holds it is possible to achieve the degenerate counterpart of conventional STIRAP, whereby adiabatic passage produces complete population transfer. Indeed, the system is equivalent to a set of independent three-state systems, in each of which a STIRAP procedure can be implemented. We describe a scheme of unitary transformations that produces this result. We also examine the cases when this degeneracy constraint does not hold, and show what can be accomplished in those cases. For example, for angular momentum states when the degeneracy of the g and f levels is less than that of the e level we show how a special choice for the pulse polarizations and phases can produce complete removal of population from the g set. Our scheme can be a powerful tool for coherent control in degenerate systems, because of its robustness when selective addressing of the states is not required or impossible. We illustrate the analysis with several analytically solvable examples, in which the degeneracies originate from angular momentum orientation, as expressed by magnetic sublevels.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figure

Spin-1/2 sub-dynamics nested in the quantum dynamics of two coupled qutrits

In this paper we investigate the quantum dynamics of two spin-1 systems, $\vec{\textbf{S}}_1$ and $\vec{\textbf{S}}_2$, adopting a generalized $(\vec{\textbf{S}}_1+\vec{\textbf{S}}_2)^2$-nonconserving Heisenberg model. We show that, due to its symmetry property, the nine-dimensional dynamics of the two qutrits exactly decouples into the direct sum of two sub-dynamics living in two orthogonal four- and five-dimensional subspaces. Such a reduction is further strengthened by our central result consisting in the fact that in the four-dimensional dynamically invariant subspace, the two qutrits quantum dynamics, with no approximations, is equivalent to that of two non interacting spin 1/2's. The interpretative advantages stemming from such a remarkable and non-intuitive nesting are systematically exploited and various intriguing features consequently emerging in the dynamics of the two qutrits are deeply scrutinised. The possibility of exploiting the dynamical reduction brought to light in this paper for exactly treating as well time-dependent versions of our Hamiltonian model is briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; Last two authors name corrected, corrected typos, Fig. 11 changed (same result

Optimum pulse shapes for stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

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 fault-tolerant 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.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev.