Abstract

The common objective of the application of adiabatic techniques in the field of quantum control is to transfer a quantum system from one discrete energy state to another. These techniques feature both high efficiency and insensitivity to variations in the experimental parameters, e.g., variations in the driving field amplitude, duration, frequency, and shape, as well as fluctuations in the environment. Here we explore the potential of adiabatic techniques for creating arbitrary predefined coherent superpositions of two quantum states. We show that an equally weighted coherent superposition can be created by temporal variation of the ratio between the Rabi frequency Ω(t) and the detuning Δ(t) from 0 to ∞ (case 1) or vice versa (case 2), as it is readily deduced from the explicit adiabatic solution for the Bloch vector. We infer important differences between cases 1 and 2 in the composition of the created coherent superposition: The latter depends on the dynamical phase of the process in case 2, while it does not depend on this phase in case 1. Furthermore, an arbitrary coherent superposition of unequal weights can be created by using asymptotic ratios of Ω(t)/Δ(t) different from 0 and ∞. We supplement the general adiabatic solution with analytic solutions for three exactly soluble models: two trigonometric models and the hyperbolic Demkov-Kunike model. They allow us not only to demonstrate the general predictions in specific cases but also to derive the nonadiabatic corrections to the adiabatic solutions.