Achieving a high population of antihydrogen and hydrogen atoms in the $2S$ level is essential for spectroscopy measurements testing similarities between matter and antimatter. We propose and examine the efficiency of applying the STIRAP (stimulated Raman adiabatic passage) process in achieving high population transfer from the $1S$ to the $2S$ levels. We utilized a circularly polarized Lyman alpha (Ly-$\alpha$) pulse to couple the $1S$ state to the $2P$ state and a microwave pulse to couple the $2P$ state and the $2S$ state. We calculate the efficiency of the STIRAP process for transferring the population between the stretched states $(1S_d,2S_d)$ as a function of experimental parameters such as Rabi frequencies and pulse durations. We find that a Ly-$\alpha$ pulse with an energy of a few nanojoules could produce nearly perfect transfer at zero detunings for atoms on the laser beam axis. We extended the analysis to a thermal ensemble of atoms, where Doppler detuning affects the velocity distribution of the hydrogen atoms produced in the $2S$ level. We found that the width of such velocity distribution is controlled by the Rabi frequency. We show that the peak velocity of the hydrogen atoms in the $2S$ level after STIRAP can be controlled by the Ly-$\alpha$ pulse detuning. The efficiency of STIRAP in transferring population increases at low temperature ($T\sim 1\mathrm{mK}$). Finally, we show that a background magnetic field improves the transfer rates between the other trappable states $(1S_c,2S_c)$.

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• Atomic & molecular structure
• Antihydrogen
• Atoms
• Trapped atoms
• Laser techniques