Complete transfer of populations from a single state to a preselected superposition of states using piecewise adiabatic passage: Experiment

We demonstrate a method of adiabatic population transfer from a single quantum state into a coherent superposition of states. The transfer is executed with femtosecond pulses, spectrally shaped in a simple and intuitive manner, which does not require iterative feedback-controlled loops. In contrast to nonadiabatic methods of excitation, our approach is not sensitive to the exact value of laser intensity. We show that the population transfer is complete, and analyze the possibility of controlling the relative phases and amplitudes of the excited eigenstates. We discuss the limitations of the proposed control methods due to the dynamic level shifts and suggest ways of reducing their influence.