Abstract
The potential use of lasers to prepare useful molecular states or to alter molecular dynamics has enticed the optical community for decades, ever since the development of the first high-power laser systems. For many years littlc progress was made. Over the last decade, however, technological developments that permitted intimate control of laser fields (phase-shifted pulse sequences, shaped laser pulses, coherent multiple-frequency irradiation) and a variety of theoretical developments have dramatically energized the field, and a large number of intriguing results have recently been produced. To date, however, most of the experimental demonstrations have simply enhanced signals or modulated overall dissociation rates. We will survey this work (including our own contributions) and compare if. with the dramatic theoretical promise of selective bond breaking, climbing anharmonic vibrational ladders, orienting molecules, suppressing relaxation, and altering reaction pathways.
© 1993 Optical Society of America
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