Abstract

There has been rapid experimental progress in the shaping of single ultrashort light pulses into sequences of pulses of specified separation, duration, and relative optical phase ^1,2a. Phase-controlled pulse sequences have found a number of applications to molecular systems ^2b,c, and several more have been the subject of theoretical calculations. The salient feature of electronically resonant phase-controlled pulse trains is their ability to generate superpositions of multiple time-dependent contributions to the nuclear wave function in a given electronic state having well-defined relative quantum phases. Here we describe two uses to which that feature might fruitfully be put in preparing and probing time-dependent nuclear wave functions in the ground electronic state possessing chemically or spectroscopically useful properties.

© 1994 Optical Society of America