title: Laboratory transferability of optimally shaped laser pulses for quantum control.
abstract: Optimal control experiments can readily identify effective shaped laser pulses, or "photonic reagents," that achieve a wide variety of objectives. An important additional practical desire is for photonic reagent prescriptions to produce good, if not optimal, objective yields when transferred to a different system or laboratory. Building on general experience in chemistry, the hope is that transferred photonic reagent prescriptions may remain functional even though all features of a shaped pulse profile at the sample typically cannot be reproduced exactly. As a specific example, we assess the potential for transferring optimal photonic reagents for the objective of optimizing a ratio of photoproduct ions from a family of halomethanes through three related experiments. First, applying the same set of photonic reagents with systematically varying second- and third-order chirp on both laser systems generated similar shapes of the associated control landscape (i.e., relation between the objective yield and the variables describing the photonic reagents). Second, optimal photonic reagents obtained from the first laser system were found to still produce near optimal yields on the second laser system. Third, transferring a collection of photonic reagents optimized on the first laser system to the second laser system reproduced systematic trends in photoproduct yields upon interaction with the homologous chemical family. These three transfers of photonic reagents are demonstrated to be successful upon paying reasonable attention to overall laser system characteristics. The ability to transfer photonic reagents from one laser system to another is analogous to well-established utilitarian operating procedures with traditional chemical reagents. The practical implications of the present results for experimental quantum control are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moore Tibbetts
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Herschel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rabitz
mesh_terms: D007202:Indicators and Reagents / Q000737:chemistry; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D007834:Lasers; D008027:Light; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000295:instrumentation; D017785:Photons
chemical_list: D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D007477:Ions