  Numerical ab initio variational calculations of the transition probabilities
and ac Stark shifts in two-photon transitions of antiprotonic helium atoms
driven by two counter-propagating laser beams are presented. We found that
sub-Doppler spectroscopy is in principle possible by exciting transitions of
the type (n,L)->(n-2,L-2) between antiprotonic states of principal and angular
momentum quantum numbers n~L-1~35, first by using highly monochromatic,
nanosecond laser beams of intensities 10^4-10^5 W/cm^2, and then by tuning the
virtual intermediate state close (e.g., within 10-20 GHz) to the real state
(n-1,L-1) to enhance the nonlinear transition probability. We expect that ac
Stark shifts of a few MHz or more will become an important source of systematic
error at fractional precisions of better than a few parts in 10^9. These shifts
can in principle be minimized and even canceled by selecting an optimum
combination of laser intensities and frequencies. We simulated the resonance
profiles of some two-photon transitions in the regions n=30-40 of the
\bar{p}^4He^+ and \bar{p} ^3He^+ isotopes to find the best conditions that
would allow this.
