  We consider the dynamics of a single electron in a chain of tunnel coupled
quantum dots, exploring the formal analogies of this system with some of the
laser-driven multilevel atomic or molecular systems studied by Bruce W. Shore
and collaborators over the last 30 years. In particular, we describe two
regimes for achieving complete coherent transfer of population in such a
multistate system. In the first regime, by carefully arranging the coupling
strengths, the flow of population between the states of the system can be made
periodic in time. In the second regime, by employing a "counterintuitive"
sequence of couplings, the coherent population trapping eigenstate of the
system can be rotated from the initial to the final desired state, which is an
equivalent of the STIRAP technique for atoms or molecules. Our results may be
useful in future quantum computation schemes.
