  We demonstrate a method of adiabatic population transfer from a single
quantum state into a coherent superposition of states. The transfer is executed
with femtosecond pulses, spectrally shaped in simple and intuitive manner,
which does not require iterative feedback-controlled loops. In contrast to
non-adiabatic methods of excitation, our approach is not sensitive to the exact
value of laser intensity. We show that the population transfer is complete, and
analyze the possibility of controlling the relative phases and amplitudes of
the excited eigenstates. We discuss the limitations of the proposed control
methods due to the dynamic level shifts and suggest ways of reducing their
influence.
