  We analyze the two-photon linewidth of the recently proposed adiabatic
transfer technique for ``stopping'' of light using electromagnetically induced
transparency (EIT). We shown that a successful and reliable transfer of
excitation from light to atoms and back can be achieved if the spectrum of the
input probe pulse lies within the initial transparency window of EIT, and if
the two-photon detuning $\delta$ is less than the collective coupling strength
(collective vacuum Rabi-frequency) $g\sqrt{N}$ divided by $\sqrt{\gamma T}$,
with $\gamma$ being the radiative decay rate, $N$ the effective number of atoms
in the sample, and $T$ the pulse duration. Hence in an optically thick medium
light ``storage'' and retrieval is possible with high fidelity even for systems
with rather large two-photon detuning or inhomogeneous broadening.
