  It is well known that area pulses make Rabi oscillation and chirped pulses in
the adiabatic interaction regime induce complete population inversion of a
two-state system. Here we show that chirped zero-area pulses could engineer an
interplay between the adiabatic evolution and Rabi-like oscillations. In a
proof-of-principle experiment utilizing spectral chirping of femtosecond laser
pulses with a resonant spectral hole, we demonstrate that the chirped zero-area
pulses could induce, for example, complete population inversion and return of
the cold rubidium atom two-state system. Experimental result agrees well with
the theoretically considered overall dynamics, which could be approximately
modeled to a Ramsey-like three-pulse interaction, where the $x$- and $z$-
rotations are respectively driven by the hole and the main pulse.
