Coherent manipulation of noise-protected superconducting artificial atoms in the Lambda scheme

We propose a protocol for the manipulation of a three-level artificial atom in Lambda configuration.It allows faithful, selective and robust population transfer analogous to stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (Lambda-STIRAP), in last-generation superconducting artificial atoms, where protection from noise implies the absenceof a direct pump coupling. It combines the use of a two-photon pump pulse with suitable advanced control,operated by a slow modulation of the phase of the external fields, leveraging on the stability of semiclassicalmicrowave drives. This protocol is a building block for manipulation of microwave photons in complex quantumarchitectures. Its demonstration would be a benchmark for the implementation of a class of multilevel advancedcontrol procedures for quantum computation and microwave quantum photonics in systems based on artificialatoms.