Experimental demonstration of robustness under scaling errors for superadiabatic population transfer in a superconducting circuit

We study experimentally and theoretically the transfer of population between the ground state and the second excited state in a transmon circuit by the use of superadiabatic stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (saSTIRAP). We show that the transfer is remarkably resilient against variations in the amplitudes of the pulses (scaling errors), thus demostrating that the superadiabatic process inherits certain robustness features from the adiabatic one. In particular, we provide new evidence of a plateau that appears at high values of the counterdiabatic pulse strength, which goes beyond the usual framework of saSTIRAP. This article is part of the theme issue 'Shortcuts to adiabaticity: theoretical, experimental and interdisciplinary perspectives'.