Protecting and accelerating adiabatic passage with time-delayed pulse sequences

Abstract

Using numerical simulations of two-photon electronic absorption with femtosecond pulses in Na₂ we show that: (i) it is possible to avoid the characteristic saturation or dumped Rabi oscillations in the yield of absorption by time-delaying the laser pulses; (ii) it is possible to accelerate the onset of adiabatic passage by using the vibrational coherence starting in a wave packet; and (iii) it is possible to prepare the initial wave packet in order to achieve full state-selective transitions with broadband pulses. The findings can be used, for instance, to achieve ultrafast adiabatic passage by light-induced potentials and understand its intrinsic robustness.