We report on an experimental investigation of rapid adiabatic passage (RAP) in a trapped barium ion system. RAP is implemented on the transition from the $6S_{1/2}$ ground state to the metastable $5D_{5/2}$ level by applying a laser at 1.76 $mu$m. We
focus on the interplay of laser frequency noise and laser power in shaping the effectiveness of RAP, which is commonly assumed to be a robust tool for high efficiency population transfer. However, we note that reaching high state transfer fidelity requires a combination of small laser linewidth and large Rabi frequency.
State preparation, qubit rotation, and high fidelity readout are demonstrated for two separate baseven qubit types. First, an optical qubit on the narrow 6S$_{1/2}$ to 5D$_{5/2}$ transition at 1.76 $mu$m is implemented. Then, leveraging the technique
s developed there for readout, a ground state hyperfine qubit using the magnetically insensitive transition at 8 GHz is accomplished.
