Control of valence-electron motion in Xe cations using the stimulated-Raman-adiabatic-passage technique

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical method to precisely control quantum superpositions in xenon cations using advanced STIRAP techniques, enabling manipulation of ultrafast charge migration with potential experimental applications.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized fractional STIRAP scheme for arbitrary superposition control and demonstrates its effectiveness with simple Gaussian pulses in xenon cations.

Findings

Controlled ultrafast charge migration in xenon cations.

Achieved arbitrary superposition control with Gaussian pulses.

Proposed experimental setups using attosecond spectroscopy.

Abstract

This work theoretically investigates possibilities of using the Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) and its variants to control a coherent superposition of quantum states. We present a generalization of the so-called fractional STIRAP (f-STIRAP), demonstrating precise control over the mixing ratio of quantum states in the wave packet. In contrast to conventional f-STIRAP, designed to drive a system from an eigenstate into a coherent superposition, our scheme enables arbitrary control over the composition of an already existing superposition state. We demonstrate that an approximate version of this technique -- where analytically designed laser pulses with composite envelopes are replaced by simple Gaussian pulses -- achieves comparable performance in controlling the dynamics of the wave packet. A limiting case of this scheme, utilizing two pulses with identical Gaussian envelopes and tuned delay and relative phase, is also explored, revealing experimentally accessible pathways for manipulating quantum coherence. We apply our developed techniques to control the ultrafast charge migration in the spin-orbit split ground electronic states of xenon cation via intermediate valence- and core-excited states. Finally, we propose concrete experimental realizations of the developed control schemes in combination with attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy as a method to probe the system.