Experimental observation of double coherent stimulated Raman adiabatic passages in three-level<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Λ</mml:mi></mml:math>systems in a cold atomic ensemble

Abstract

Coherent stimulated Raman adiabatic passages (STIRAP) based on a dark state have many applications in diverse quantum systems. In the case of large single-photon detuning in three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ systems, one of the bright states almost does not involve the excited state and then acts as the dark state. In this paper, we report the experimental observation of STIRAP based on the dark state, as well as b-STIRAP based on the above bright state, with the same transfer efficiency in a three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ cold atomic ensemble. Moreover, both STIRAP and b-STIRAP are found to be immune to the time-varying ac Stark shift. As for a typical example to manipulate a superposition state, we realize an inverse operation on an initial superposition state, which cannot be achieved efficiently for STIRAP based on only the dark state. Our observed double STIRAP thus provides a feasible and robust manner to manipulate quantum states.