  The controlled preparation of the excited state in a quantum emitter is a
prerequisite for its usage as single-photon sources - a key building block for
quantum technologies. In this paper we propose a coherent excitation scheme
using off-resonant pulses. In the usual Rabi scheme, these pulses would not
lead to a significant occupation. This is overcome by using a frequency
modulated pulse to swing up the excited state population. The same effect can
be obtained using two pulses with different strong detunings of the same sign.
We theoretically analyze the applicability of the scheme to a semiconductor
quantum dot. In this case the excitation is several meV below the band gap,
i.e., far away from the detection frequency allowing for easy spectral
filtering, and does not rely on any auxiliary particles such as phonons. Our
scheme has the potential to lead to the generation of close-to-ideal photons.
