Dipole mediated tunnelling: Robust single-pulse population transfer across dipolar double-well systems

Single pulse dipole mediated tunnelling at frequencies tuned approximately to the vicinity of the direct 1-photon and multiphoton tunnel transitions is explored as a mechanism of population transfer across asymmetric dipolar 3-level lambda- (Λ-) or N-level extended Λ-systems. These systems may be purely sequentially coupled, with zero dipole matrix coupling elements for non-neighbouring states along the legs of the Λ. In simulations for model systems with typical molecular parameters, dipole mediated tunnelling is found to be a highly efficient strong-field mechanism of population transfer with remarkable robustness properties, in particular so for higher-order multiphoton processes.