Dynamical suppression of unwanted transition paths in multistate quantum systems

We introduce a method to suppress unwanted transition channels, even without knowing their couplings, and achieve perfect population transfer in multistate quantum systems by the application of composite pulse sequences. Unwanted transition paths may be present due to imperfect light polarization, stray electromagnetic fields, misalignment of quantization axis, spatial inhomogeneity of trapping fields, off-resonant couplings, etc. Compensation of simultaneous deviations in polarization, pulse area, and detuning is demonstrated. The accuracy, the flexibility and the robustness of this technique make it suitable for high-fidelity applications in quantum optics and quantum information processing.