We investigate the evolution of an electron undergoing coherent tunneling via adiabatic passage (CTAP) using the solution of the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation in both space and time for a triple well potential. We find the eigenspectrum and complete time evolution for a range of different pulsing schemes. This also provides an example of a system that can be described with the tools from both quantum optics and condensed matter. We find that while the quantum optics description of the process captures most of the key physics, there are important effects that can only be correctly described by a more complete representation. This is an important point for applications such as quantum information processing or quantum control where it is common practice to use a reduced state space formulation of the quantum system in question.

• Received 19 February 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.235418