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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Target states and control of molecular alignment in a dissipative medium

subject

description

Received 17 August 2006; published 14 November 2006We investigate how and to what extent molecular alignment can be controlled in a dissipative medium by asuitable train of laser pulses. We focus primarily on the extension of a scheme of control originally constructedfor unitary evolution. The procedure is applied to control the alignment of CO molecules in an Ar gas. Theparameters of the train of kicks—i.e., the intensity of each kick and the delay between them—are eitherobtained by a systematic procedure maximum strategy or by optimization by evolutionary algorithms.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.74.053411 PACS number s : 32.80.Lg, 33.80. b, 42.50.Hz