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The Journal of Chemical Physics

Coherent control of multiphoton driven processes: A laser-induced catalyst

W. R. Garrett, Yifei Zhu

Published Feb 1, 1997• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A well-known quantum interference phenomenon is combined with laser-induced collisional energy transfer to create a coherently controlled excitation involving two species. From one viewpoint the process involves a laser induced catalyst. An experimental demonstration is performed in mixtures of Xe and Kr gases.
DOI
10.1063/1.473311

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Coherent control provides a quantum interference based method for controlling atomic and molecular dynamics. We report two experimental observations of different ways to achieve such a control in atomic photoionization continuum. One is the photoionization of sodium atoms, initially prepared in the 3P1/2 excited state, by a non resonant three-photon interaction with 1064-nm laser light and by a one-photon interaction with the third-harmonic field, at 355 nm. Interference between the two transition paths allows the control of the total ionization rate by varying the relative phase of the laser fields. The second experiment is the observation of the modification of the ionization continua of xenon through laser induced continuum structure (LICS). The multiphoton radiative decay of the xenon ground state into the two electronic continua, that correspond to the two fine structure levels of the ground state of the xenon ion, is varied by electromagnetically embedding a bound state of the atom into the two continua. Both experiments are performed on an atomic beam apparatus which uses a time-of-flight spectrometer for energy analyzing the emitted photoelectrons.
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