Retroreflection-induced bichromatic adiabatic passage

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Abstract
We present a simple technique that can, without the need for frequency-chirped lasers or varying Stark shifts, produce a complete adiabatic passage between two atomic or molecular bound states. The technique uses a single laser beam, which crosses the particle beam slightly tilted away from normal incidence, thereby inducing a controlled Doppler shift. A subsequent retroreflection produces effectively a two-pulse bichromatic field in the rest frame of each particle. The retroreflected beam is parallel to the incident beam, but is slightly offset in space and has a reduced intensity. Using the adiabatic Floquet theory developed recently by Guérin et al. [Phys. Rev. 63, 031403 (2001)] we show that such a field is capable of producing complete and robust population transfer between two quantum states. We derive the conditions for such transfer and illustrate the potential success with model simulations.

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