Physics Colloquium, May 30, 2006

Ultrafast Quantum Control

Philip H. Bucksbaum

Stanford University

The internal parts of a molecule can move very quickly. The primary chemical changes involved in vision or photosynthesis can take less than a trillionth of a second. Lasers can more than keep up with this: the shortest laser pulses these days are less that one thousandth of a trillionth of a second. This means that ultrafast laser pulses are very good strobe lights to freeze motion in molecules, and much physics and chemistry research is devoted to these kinds of ultrafast observations. My research takes this notion one step further: I study how ultrafast laser pulses can control basic quantum processes in atoms and molecules. Quantum control research collects clues from the photochemical reactions themselves, and then uses the clues to reshape the light. In this way, the molecule teaches the laser how to do its job better. These optimally shaped laser pulses are like maps that can help us decipher how the molecule carries out its task.

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB