Two-photon adiabatic passage in ultracold Rb interacting with a single nanosecond, chirped pulse

Abstract

A semiclassical, four-level model of a nanosecond, chirped pulse interacting with all optically accessible hyperfine states in the ultracold Rb atom is analyzed aiming at population inversion within $5S_{1/2}$ electronic state. The nature of two-photon adiabatic passage performed by such a single pulse having a bandwidth smaller than the hyperfine splitting of $5S_{1/2}$ state is investigated in the framework of the dressed state picture. It is shown that two dressed states are involved in the adiabatic dynamics of population inversion. The excited state manifold appeared to play an important mediating role in the mechanism of population transfer.