Excitation of Rydberg states of atoms by adiabatic transfer of populations.

We introduce the adiabatic interaction of five-level ladder-type system with four laser pulses provided that all three two-photon detunings are equal to zero. The analytical expressions for a quasi-energy of the system under consideration and the adiabatic condition of interaction are derived. The process of effective adiabatic excitation of such a system that can be successfully applied to obtain the Rydberg atoms is analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]