  Efficient initialization and manipulation of quantum states is important for
numerous applications and it usually requires the ability to perform high
fidelity and robust swapping of the populations of quantum states. Stimulated
Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) has been known to perform efficient and robust
inversion of the ground states populations of a three-level system. However,
its performance is sensitive to the initial state of the system. In this
contribution we demonstrate that a slight modification of STIRAP, where we
introduce a non-zero single-photon detuning, allows for efficient and robust
population swapping for any initial state. The results of our work could be
useful for efficient and robust state preparation, dynamical decoupling and
design of quantum gates in ground state qubits via two-photon interactions.
