Optimization of population transfer by adiabatic passage -: art. no. 023409

We examine the adiabatic limit of population transfer in two-level models driven by a chirped laser field. We show that the nonadiabatic correction is minimized when the adiabatic eigenenergies associated to the dynamics are parallel. In the diagram of the difference of the eigenenergy surfaces as a function of the parameters, this corresponds to an adiabatic passage along a level line. The analytical arguments are based on the Dykhne-Davis-Pechukas treatment. We illustrate this behavior with various examples.