Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a quantum system near a plasmonic nanoparticle

Abstract

Abstract We investigate theoretically the population transfer process in a Λ-type three-level quantum system (QS) near a metallic nanosphere using the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) technique. We combine density matrix quantum dynamical calculations with first-principle electromagnetic calculations, which quantify the influence of the plasmonic nanoparticle on the electric field of the pump and Stokes pulses in STIRAP as well as on the spontaneous emission rates within the Λ-type system. We study the population transfer process by varying the free-space spontaneous emission rate, the distance of the QS from the nanosphere, the polarization direction with respect to the nanoparticle surface and the relative strength of the pump and Stokes pulses used in STIRAP. We find that when the pump and Stokes fields have tangential and radial polarizations with respect to the nanosphere surface, the transfer efficiency is improved due to the increase of the decay rate of the excited state to the target state relatively to the decay to the initial state. The optimal population transfer is achieved for small interparticle distances, moderate free space spontaneous decay rate, large values of the pump Rabi frequency and small values of the Stokes Rabi frequency. When we exchange the polarization directions of the pump and Stokes fields we can still find a range of parameters where the population transfer remains efficient, but larger Stokes Rabi frequencies are necessary to overcome the increased decay rate from the excited state back to the initial state.