Phenomenon of a stronger trapping behaviour in $Λ$-type quantum systems with symmetry

Abstract: $\Lambda$, $V$, $\Xi$ (ladder), and other three-level quantum systems with one forbidden transition ($\Lambda$-type systems) play an important role in quantum physics. Various applications require manipulation by such systems using as control shaped laser field. In this work, we study how degeneracy in energy states and Bohr frequencies of these systems affects the efficiency or difficulty of finding optimal shape of the control field. For this, we adopt the notion of higher order traps which was introduced in [A.N. Pechen and D.J. Tannor, Are there traps in quantum control landscapes? Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 106}, 120402 (2011)], where second/third order traps were discovered for $\Lambda$-type systems with one forbidden transition and with non-degenerate energy levels. We study control of such systems with and without denegeracy in their eigenstates and Bohr frequencies, and investigate how these degeneracies influence on the efficiency of optimizing the control laser field. We find that the degeneracy of Bohr frequencies in the $\Xi$ system leads to the appearance of seventh order trap with a more significant attracting domain resulting in a more difficult optimization, while degeneracy in energy states of $\Lambda$-type systems does not lead to increase of the order of the zero control trap compared to the non-degenerate case.