Efficiencies of adiabatic transfer in a multistate system

We present a theoretical and experimental study of the efficiency of adiaba tic transfer between the Zeeman substates of the cesium ground level, using the D1 F = 4-->4' transition. In order to understand the application of th e adiabatic condition to such multistate systems, we examine the separation of their energy eigenstates as a function of the number of participating s tates. We present a systematic investigation of the physical factors affect ing the efficiency of transfer in a multistate system and we see that veloc ity selection plays an important role in these calculations. We use the the ory to compare the suitability of adiabatic transfer with F = 1-->1' and F = 4-->4' transitions for atom optics. [S1050-2947(99)06505-1].