- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review A

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Coherent control of quantum states by quadratically chirped short laser pulses

G. P. Djotyan1, A. A. Avetisyan2,*, and A. P. Djotyan2

  • *Contact author: artakav@ysu.am
PDF

Phys. Rev. A 113, 043128 – Published 29 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wfp1-m3m3

Abstract

We present a scheme for coherent manipulation of populations and robust creation of arbitrary coherent superposition of metastable states of a quantum system with lambda configuration of operating energy levels using laser pulses with a quadratically chirped carrier frequency. The case of a single “broadband” laser pulse is considered, when the width of the laser pulse frequency spectrum (without chirp) exceeds the frequency distance between the metastable energy levels of the system. The results of the dressed state analysis and numerical simulation are presented, demonstrating reliable, robust, and rapid creation of an arbitrary coherent superposition of metastable states by changing the parameters of the laser pulses.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (55)

  1. M. Kasevich and S. Chu, Atomic interferometry using stimulated Raman transitions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 181 (1991).
  2. M. Weitz, B. C. Young, and S. Chu, Atomic interferometer based on adiabatic population transfer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2563 (1994).
  3. J. Lawall and M. Prentiss, Demonstration of a novel atomic beam splitter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 993 (1994).
  4. D. L. Butts, J. M. Kinast, K. Kotru, A. M. Radojevic, B. P. Timmons, and R. E. Stoner, Coherent population trapping in Raman-pulse atom interferometry, Phys. Rev. A 84, 043613 (2011).
  5. H. Theuer, R. Unanyan, C. Habscheid, K. Klein, and K. Bergmann, Novel laser controlled variable matter wave beamsplitter, Opt. Express 4, 77 (1999).
  6. P. Brumer and M. Shapiro, Laser control of molecular processes, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 43, 257 (1992).
  7. X. Li and G. A. Parker, Theory of laser enhancement of ultracold reactions, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 184113 (2008).
  8. S. Chatterjee and S. S. Bhattacharyya, Selective excitation of LI2 by chirped laser pulses with all possible interstate radiative couplings, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 164313 (2010).
  9. C. P. Williams and S. H. Clearwater, Explorations in Quantum Computing (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1997).
  10. D. Bouwmeester, A. Ekert, and A. Zeilinger, The Physics of Quantum Information: Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Teleportation, Quantum Computation (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2000).
  11. P. Kaufmann, T. F. Gloger, D. Kaufmann, M. Johanning, and C. Wunderlich, High-fidelity preservation of quantum information during trapped-ion transport, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 010501 (2018).
  12. M. G. Bason, M. Viteau, N. Malossi, P. Huillery, E. Arimondo, D. Ciampini, R. Fazio, V. Giovannetti, R. Mannella, and O. Morsch, High-fidelity quantum driving, Nat. Phys. 8, 147 (2012).
  13. M. Saffman, T. G. Walker, and K. Mølmer, Quantum information with Rydberg atoms, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 2313 (2010).
  14. C. H. Bennett and D. P. DiVincenzo, Quantum information and computation, Nature (London) 404, 247 (2000).
  15. A. S. Parkins, P. Marte, P. Zoller, and H. J. Kimble, Synthesis of arbitrary quantum states via adiabatic transfer of Zeeman coherence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3095 (1993).
  16. G. P. Djotyan, J. S. Bakos, G. Demeter, P. N. Ignácz, M. A. Kedves, Zs. Sörlei, J. Szigeti, and Z. L. Tóth, Coherent population transfer in Rb atoms by frequency-chirped laser pulses, Phys. Rev. A 68, 053409 (2003).
  17. G. Liu, V. Zakharov, T. Collins, P. Gould, and S. A. Malinovskaya, Population inversion in hyperfine states of Rb, with a single nanosecond chirped pulse in the framework of a four-level system, Phys. Rev. A 89, 041803(R) (2014).
  18. K. Varga-Umbrich, J. S. Bakos, G. P. Djotyan, Zs. Sörlei, G. Demeter, P. N. Ignácz, B. Ráczkevi, J. Szigeti, and M. A. Kedves, Coherent manipulation of trapped Rb atoms by overlapping frequency-chirped laser pulses: Theory and experiment, Eur. Phys. J. D 76, 70 (2022).
  19. F. Vewinger, M. Heinz, R. Garcia Fernandez, N. V. Vitanov, and K. Bergmann, Creation and measurement of a coherent superposition of quantum states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 213001 (2003).
  20. N. Sangouard, S. Guérin, L. P. Yatsenko, and T. Halfmann, Preparation of coherent superposition in a three-state system by adiabatic passage, Phys. Rev. A 70, 013415 (2004).
  21. L. Yatsenko, N. V. Vitanov, B. W. Shore, T. Rickes, and K. Bergmann, Creation of coherent superpositions using Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage, Opt. Commun. 204, 413 (2002).
  22. H. K Avetissian, B. R. Avchyan, and G. F. Mkrtchian, Two-color multiphoton resonant excitation of three-level atoms, Phys. Rev. A 74, 063413 (2006).
  23. G. P. Djotyan, J. S. Bakos, Zs. Sörlei, and J. Szigeti, Coherent control of atomic quantum states by single frequency-chirped laser pulses, Phys. Rev. A 70, 063406 (2004).
  24. Z. Zhang, X. Yang, and X. Yan, Population transfer and generation of arbitrary superpositions of quantum states in a four-level system using a single-chirped laser pulse, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 30, 1017 (2013).
  25. G. P. Djotyan, J. S. Bakos, G. Demeter, Zs. Sörlei, J. Szigeti, and D. Dzsotjan, Creation of a coherent superposition of quantum states by a single frequency-chirped short laser pulse, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 25, 166 (2008).
  26. H. K. Avetissian, A. Brown, and G. F. Mkrtchian, Induced multiphoton adiabatic passage and coherent control of population transfer in quantum systems with high-energy transitions, Phys. Rev. A 80, 033413 (2009).
  27. G. P. Djotyan, N. Sandor, J. S. Bakos, and Zs. Sörlei, An extremely robust strong-field control of atomic coherence, Opt. Express 19, 17493 (2011).
  28. M. Ndong, G. P. Djotyan, A. Ruschhaupt, and S. Guérin, Robust coherent superposition of states by single-shot shaped pulse, J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 48, 174007 (2015).
  29. J. B. Watson, A. Sanpera, X. Chen, and K. Burnett, Harmonic generation from a coherent superposition of states, Phys. Rev. A 53, R1962 (1996).
  30. M. Jain, Hui Xia, G. Y. Yin, A. J. Merriam, and S. E. Harris, Efficient nonlinear frequency conversion with maximal atomic coherence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4326 (1996).
  31. A. V. Sokolov, D. R. Walker, D. D. Yavuz, G. Y. Yin, and S. E. Harris, Raman generation by phased and antiphased molecular states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 562 (2000).
  32. M. D. Lukin, P. R. Hemmer, M. Löffler, and M. O. Scully, Resonant enhancement of parametric processes via radiative interference and induced coherence, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2675 (1998).
  33. E. Korsunsky, T. Halfmann, J. P. Marangos, M. Fleischhauer, and K. Bergmann, Analytical study of fourwave mixing with large atomic coherence, Eur. Phys. J. D 23, 167 (2003).
  34. T. Rickes, J. P. Marangos, and T. Halfmann, Enhancement of third-harmonic generation by Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage, Opt. Commun. 227, 133 (2003).
  35. H. K. Avetissian, A. G. Markossian, and G. F. Mkrtchian, High-order harmonic generation on atoms and ions with laser fields of relativistic intensities, Phys. Rev. A 84, 013418 (2011).
  36. J. T. Bahns, W. C. Stwalley, and P. L. Gould, Laser cooling of molecules: A sequential scheme for rotation, translation, and vibration, J. Chem. Phys. 104, 9689 (1996).
  37. M. Dupont-Nivet, M. Casiulis, T. Laudat, C. I. Westbrook, and S. Schwartz, Microwave-stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a Bose–Einstein condensate on an atom chip, Phys. Rev. A 91, 053420 (2015).
  38. G. P. Djotyan, J. S. Bakos, and Zs. Sörlei, Coherent writing and reading of information using frequency-chirped short bichromatic laser pulses, Opt. Express 4, 113 (1999).
  39. G. P. Djotyan, J. S. Bakos, and Zs. Sörlei, Three-level Λ atom in the field of frequency-chirped bichromatic laser pulses: Writing and storage of optical phase information, Phys. Rev. A 64, 013408 (2001).
  40. O. V. Ivakhnenko, S. N. Shevchenko, and F. Nori, Nonadiabatic Landau–Zener Stückelberg–Majorana transitions, dynamics, and interference, Phys. Rep. 995, 1 (2023).
  41. K. Bergmann, H. Theuer, and B. W. Shore, Coherent population transfer among quantum states of atoms and molecules, Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 1003 (1998).
  42. N. V. Vitanov, A. A. Rangelov, B. W. Shore, and K. Bergmann, Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in physics, chemistry, and beyond, Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 015006 (2017).
  43. N. V. Vitanov, T. Halfmann, B. W. Shore, and K. Bergmann, Laser-induced population transfer by adiabatic passage techniques, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 52, 763 (2001).
  44. V. S. Malinovsky and J. L. Krause, General theory of population transfer by adiabatic rapid passage with intense, chirped laser pulses, Eur. Phys. J. D 14, 147 (2001).
  45. P. Král, I. Thanopulos, and M. Shapiro, Colloquium: Coherently controlled adiabatic passage, Rev. Mod. Phys. 79, 53 (2007).
  46. C. Ding, R. Yu, X. Hao, and D. Zhang, Controllable population dynamics in Landau-quantized graphene, Sci. Rep. 8, 1530 (2018).
  47. F. Kappe, Y. Karli, G. Wilbur, R. G. Krämer, S. Ghosh, R. Schwarz, M. Kaiser, T. K. Bracht, D. E. Reiter, S. Nolte, K. C. Hall, G. Weihs, and V. Remesh, Chirped pulses meet quantum dots: Innovations, challenges, and future perspectives, Adv. Quantum Technol. 8, 2300352 (2025).
  48. A. P. Djotyan, G. P. Djotyan, and A. A. Avetisyan, Coherent control of lowest states of a shallow impurity in graphene monolayer by phase modulated laser pulses, J. Contemp. Phys. 59, 272 (2024).
  49. J. S. Bakos N.Sandor, Zs. Sörlei, and G. P. Djotyan, Creation of coherent superposition states in inhomogeneously broadened media with relaxation, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 28, 2785 (2011).
  50. C. Xu, A. Poudel, and M. G. Vavilov, Nonadiabatic dynamics of a slowly driven dissipative two-level system, Phys. Rev. A 89, 052102 (2014).
  51. A. Levy, E. Torrontegui, and R. Kosloff, Action-noise-assisted quantum control, Phys. Rev. A 96, 033417 (2017).
  52. A. A. Avetisyan, A. P. Djotyan, G. P. Djotyan, A. L. Vartanian, and A. L. Asatryan, Coherent control of a shallow impurity quantum states in graphene monolayer by bichromatic phase modulated laser pulses: Influence of relaxation processes, J. Contemp. Phys. 60, 42 (2025).
  53. F. Ahmadinouri, M. Hosseini, and F. Sarreshtedari, Investigation of robust population transfer using quadratically chirped laser interacting with a two-level system, Phys. Scr. 94, 105404 (2019).
  54. P. Meystre and M. Sargent III, Elements of Quantum Optics (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1991).
  55. L. Allen and J. H. Eberly, Optical Resonance and Two-Level Atoms (Dover, New York, 1987).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. A 113, 043128– Published 29 April, 2026
  • Received 22 October 2025
  • Accepted 1 April 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation