Abstract:

Adiabatic processes are useful for quantum technologies1–3 but, despite their robustness to experimental imperfections, they remain susceptible to decoherence due to their long evolution time. A general strategy termed shortcuts to adiabaticity4–9 (STA) aims to remedy this vulnerability by designing fast dynamics to reproduce the results of a slow, adiabatic evolution. Here, we implement an STA technique known as superadiabatic transitionless driving10 (SATD) to speed up stimulated Raman adiabatic passage1,11–14 in a solid-state lambda system. Using the optical transitions to a dissipative excited state in the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond, we demonstrate the accelerated performance of dierent shortcut trajectories for population transfer and for the initialization and transfer of coherent superpositions. We reveal that SATD protocols exhibit robustness to dissipation and experimental uncertainty, and can be optimized when these eects are present. These results suggest that STA could be eective for controlling a variety of solid-state open quantum systems11–16.