An extremely robust strong-field control of atomic coherence.

We propose and analyze a scheme for adiabatic creation of maximum coherence of 0.5 with a controllable phase between a ground state and the excited state in a model.-structured atom using two short laser pulses. One of the pulses has constant carrier frequency quasi-resonant with transition between an initially empty ground and the excite states. The frequency of the second pulse is swept through the resonance with the adjacent transition between the initially populated ground state and the common excited state of the atom. We demonstrate high degree of robustness of the scheme against variation of parameters of the laser radiation in relatively broad region of values. The proposed scheme may find practical applications in the field of multi-photon ionization, high-order harmonics and Raman sideband generation, as well as in nonlinear wave mixing in coherently prepared media. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America