title: Incoherent control of the retinal isomerization in rhodopsin.
abstract: We propose to control the retinal photoisomerization yield through the backaction dynamics imparted by a nonselective optical measurement of the molecular electronic state. This incoherent effect is easier to implement than comparable coherent pulse shaping techniques, and is also robust to environmental noise. A numerical simulation of the quantum dynamics shows that the isomerization yield of this important biomolecule can be substantially increased above the natural limit.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany and University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Physics, Lotharstraße 1-21, 47057 Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.affiliation: University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Physics, Lotharstraße 1-21, 47057 Duisburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hornberger