Robust population transfer in atomic beams induced by Doppler shifts

The influence of photon momentum recoil on adiabatic population transfer in an atomic three-level lambda system is studied. It is shown that the Doppler frequency shifts, due to atomic motion, can play an important role in adiabatic population transfer processes of atomic internal states by a pair of laser fields. For the limiting case of slow atoms (Doppler shift much smaller than the photon recoil energy), the atoms occupy the same target state regardless of the order of switching of laser fields, while for the case of fast atoms interacting with the intuitive sequence of pulses, the target state is the intermediate atomic state. Furthermore, it is shown that this novel technique for adiabatic population transfer is related to a level crossing in the bright–intermediate state basis (rather than in the original atomic basis). It is shown that these processes are robust with respect to parameter fluctuations, such as the laser pulse area and the relative spatial offset (delay) of the laser beams. The obtained results can be used for the control of temporal evolution of atomic populations in cold atomic beams by externally adjustable Doppler shifts.