Laser control for the optimal evolution of pure quantum states

D. Sugny1, A. Keller1, O. Atabek1, D. Daems2, C. M. Dion3, S. Guérin4, and H. R. Jauslin4

1Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire du CNRS, Bâtiment 213, Campus d'Orsay, 91405 Orsay, France
2Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 231, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
3Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
4Laboratoire de Physiqie de l'Université de Bourgogne, UMR CNRS 5027, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon, France

Starting from an initial pure quantum state, we present a strategy for reaching a target state corresponding to the extremum maximum or minimum of a given observable. We show that a sequence of pulses of moderate intensity, applied at times when the average of the observable reaches its local or global extremum, constitutes a strategy transferable to different control issues. Among them, postpulse molecular alignment and orientation are presented as examples. The robustness of such strategies with respect to experimentally relevant parameters is also examined.


This article has been published in The Physical Review A 71, 063402 (2005) and may be found at http://publish.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v71/e063402.

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