Superposition of states by adiabatic passage inN-pod systems

Abstract

We study the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage technique in an $N$-pod system driven by $N$ pulsed fields when $N\ensuremath{-}2$ and $N\ensuremath{-}1$ pulses not connected to the initial state have the same shape. We show that, for properly timed pulses, robust population transfer from an initial ground state to an arbitrary coherent superposition of the ground states can be achieved in a single step. The case of $N\ensuremath{-}2$ pulses of the same shape involves a geometric phase of the same type as the one appearing in tripod systems.