Population transfer via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a solid

We report experimental demonstration of population transfer via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage with a rare-earth-ion-doped crystal (Pr3+:Y2SiO5). About 90% of population of a ground level is transferred to another ground level with two pulses whose width is shorter than the lifetime of the excited state. The dependence of transferred population on the delay time of the pulse sequence is also experimentally investigated. The delay-time dependence observed in our experiment is similar to that obtained by numerical simulation.