Control of Molecular Fragmentation Using Binary Phase-Shaped Femtosecond Laser Pulses

Quantum coherent control of H3 + formation in strong fields

Quantum coherent control (QCC) has been successfully demonstrated experimentally and theoretically for two- and three-photon optical excitation of atoms and molecules. Here, we explore QCC using spectral phase functions with a single spectral phase step for controlling the yield of H₃ ⁺ from methanol under strong laser field excitation. We observe a significant and systematic enhanced production of H₃ ⁺ when a negative 34 π phase step is applied near the low energy region of the laser spectrum and when a positive 34 π phase step is applied near the high energy region of the laser spectrum. In some cases, most notably the HCO⁺ fragment, we found the enhancement exceeded the yield measured for transform limited pulses. The observation of enhanced yield is surprising and far from the QCC prediction of yield suppression. The observed QCC enhancement implies an underlying strong field process responsible for polyatomic fragmentation controllable by easy to reproduce shaped pulses.

Mitigating self-action processes with chirp or binary phase shaping

We report the use of binary phase shaping to mitigate pulse degradation and self-focusing in fused silica. The results of simulation and estimated mitigation efficiency are supported by experimental results using both chirped and binary phase-shaped pulses. Possible applications are considered.

Polyatomic molecules under intense femtosecond laser irradiation

Interaction of intense laser pulses with atoms and molecules is at the forefront of atomic, molecular, and optical physics. It is the gateway to powerful new tools that include above threshold ionization, high harmonic generation, electron diffraction, molecular tomography, and attosecond pulse generation. Intense laser pulses are ideal for probing and manipulating chemical bonding. Though the behavior of atoms in strong fields has been well studied, molecules under intense fields are not as well understood and current models have failed in certain important aspects. Molecules, as opposed to atoms, present confounding possibilities of nuclear and electronic motion upon excitation. The dynamics and fragmentation patterns in response to the laser field are structure sensitive; therefore, a molecule cannot simply be treated as a "bag of atoms" during field induced ionization. In this article we present a set of experiments and theoretical calculations exploring the behavior of a large collection of aryl alkyl ketones when irradiated with intense femtosecond pulses. Specifically, we consider to what extent molecules retain their molecular identity and properties under strong laser fields. Using time-of-flight mass spectrometry in conjunction with pump-probe techniques we study the dynamical behavior of these molecules, monitoring ion yield modulation caused by intramolecular motions post ionization. The set of molecules studied is further divided into smaller sets, sorted by type and position of functional groups. The pump-probe time-delay scans show that among positional isomers the variations in relative energies, which amount to only a few hundred millielectronvolts, influence the dynamical behavior of the molecules despite their having experienced such high fields (V/Å). High level ab initio quantum chemical calculations were performed to predict molecular dynamics along with single and multiphoton resonances in the neutral and ionic states. We propose the following model of strong-field ionization and subsequent fragmentation for polyatomic molecules: Single electron ionization occurs on a suboptical cycle time scale, and the electron carries away essentially all of the energy, leaving behind little internal energy in the cation. Subsequent fragmentation of the cation takes place as a result of further photon absorption modulated by one- and two-photon resonances, which provide sufficient energy to overcome the dissociation energy. The proposed hypothesis implies the loss of a photoelectron at a rate that is faster than intramolecular vibrational relaxation and is consistent with the observation of nonergodic photofragmentation of polyatomic molecules as well as experimental results from many other research groups on different molecules and with different pulse durations and wavelengths.

Quantum gate operations using midinfrared binary shaped pulses on the rovibrational states of carbon monoxide

Frequency domain shaped binary laser pulses were optimized to perform 2 qubit quantum gate operations in (12)C(16)O. The qubit rovibrational state representation was chosen so that all gate operations consisted of one-photon transitions. The amplitude and phase varied binary pulses were determined using a genetic algorithm optimization routine. Binary pulses have two possible amplitudes, 0 or 1, and two phases, 0 or pi, for each frequency component of the pulse. Binary pulses are the simplest to shape experimentally and provide a minimum fidelity limit for amplitude and phase shaped pulses. With the current choice of qubit representation and using optimized binary pulses, fidelities of 0.80 and as high as 0.97 were achieved for the controlled-NOT and alternative controlled-NOT quantum gates. This indicates that with a judicious choice of qubits, most of the required control can be obtained with a binary pulse. Limited control was observed for 2 qubit NOT and Hadamard gates due to the need to control multiple excitations. The current choice of qubit representation produces pulses with decreased energies and superior fidelities when compared with rovibrational qubit representations consisting of two-photon transitions. The choice of input pulse energy is important and applying pulses of increased energy does not necessarily lead to a better fidelity.