title: Mechanisms in adaptive feedback control: photoisomerization in a liquid.
abstract: The underlying mechanism for Adaptive Feedback Control in the experimental photoisomerization of 3,3'-diethyl-2,2'-thiacyanine iodide (NK88) in methanol is exposed theoretically. With given laboratory limitations on laser output, the complicated electric fields are shown to achieve their targets in qualitatively simple ways. Further, control over the cis population without laser limitations reveals an incoherent pump-dump scenario as the optimal isomerization strategy. In neither case are there substantial contributions from quantum multiple-path interference or from nuclear wave packet coherence. Environmentally induced decoherence is shown to justify the use of a simplified theoretical model.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Physics Theory Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kunihito
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoki
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brumer