Quantum Chessboards in the Deuterium Molecular Ion

Abstract

We present a new algorithm for vibrational control in deuterium molecules that is feasible with current experimental technology. A pump mechanism is used to create a coherent superposition of the D2+ vibrations. A short, intense infrared control pulse is applied after a chosen delay time to create selective interferences. A `chessboard' pattern of states can be realized in which a set of even- or odd-numbered vibrational states can be selectively annihilated or enhanced. A technique is proposed for experimental realization and observation of this effect using 5 fs pulses of 790 nm radiation, with intermediate intensity (5e13 W/cm2)

12 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Mapping the Evolution of Optically-Generated Rotational Wavepackets in a Room Temperature Ensemble of D${}_2$
• Isolated vibrational wavepackets in D2+: Defining superposition conditions and wavepacket distinguishability