Biomedical subjects

Michael Spanner

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Spanner.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Controlling high harmonic generation with molecular wave packets.

We show that, by controlling the alignment of molecules, we can influence the high harmonic generation process. We observed strong intensity modulation and spectral shaping of high harmonics produced with a rotational wave packet in a low-density gas of N2 or O2. In N2, where the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) has sigma(g) symmetry, the maximum signal occurs when the molecules are aligned along the laser polarization while the minimum occurs when it is perpendicular. In O2, where the HOMO has pi(g) symmetry, the harmonics are enhanced when the molecules are aligned around 45 degrees to the laser polarization. The symmetry of the molecular orbital can be read by harmonics. Molecular wave packets offer a means of shaping attosecond pulses.

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PubMed2005

Is the Filinov integral conditioning technique useful in semiclassical initial value representation methods?

The utility of the Filinov integral conditioning technique, as implemented in semiclassical initial value representation (SC-IVR) methods, is analyzed for a number of regular and chaotic systems. For nonchaotic systems of low dimensionality, the Filinov technique is found to be quite ineffective at accelerating convergence of semiclassical calculations since, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the semiclassical integrands usually do not exhibit significant phase oscillations in regions of large integrand amplitude. In the case of chaotic dynamics, it is found that the regular component is accurately represented by the SC-IVR, even when using the Filinov integral conditioning technique, but that quantum manifestations of chaotic behavior was easily overdamped by the filtering technique. Finally, it is shown that the level of approximation introduced by the Filinov filter is, in general, comparable to the simpler ad hoc truncation procedure introduced by Kay.

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PubMed2004

Coherent control of rotational wave-packet dynamics via fractional revivals.

We show (i) how the evolution of a wave packet created from an initial thermal ensemble can be controlled by manipulating interferences during the wave packet's fractional revivals and (ii) how the wave-packet evolution can be mapped onto the dynamics of a few-state system, where the number of states is determined by the amount of information one wants to track about the wave packet in the phase space. We illustrate our approach by (i) switching off and on field-free molecular axis alignment induced by a strong laser pulse and (ii) converting alignment into field-free orientation, starting with rotationally cold or hot systems.

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PubMed2003

Quantum logic approach to wave packet control.

We study control of wave packets with a finite accuracy, approaching it as quantum information processing. For a given control resolution, we define the analogs of several quantum bits within the shape of a single wave packet. These bits are based on wave packet symmetries. Analogs of one- and two-bit gates can be implemented using only free wave packet evolution and coordinate-dependent ac Stark shifts applied at the moments of fractional revivals. As in quantum computation, the gates form a logarithmically small set of basis operations which can be used to approximate any unitary transformation desired for quantum control of the wave packet dynamics. Numerical examples show the application of this approach to control vibrational wave packet revivals.

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PubMed2003

Molecule without electrons: binding bare nuclei with strong laser fields.

We show how a carefully chosen combination of strong linearly and circularly polarized laser fields can bind two same-sign charges, not only suppressing their Coulomb repulsion in all three spatial dimensions, but also creating an effective attraction. As an example, we show how a molecule HD2+ stripped of both electrons can be kept bound by the laser fields.

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PubMed2003

Strong field tunnel ionization by real-valued classical trajectories.

Strong field tunnel ionization of an atom is considered from the point of view of semiclassical initial value representation methods which are based on real-valued classical trajectories alone. While the straightforward application of such propagators fails to give an accurate description of tunnel ionization in one dimension, incorporating the semiclassical propagator into S-matrix techniques standard in strong field physics leads to a more accurate method which recovers the tunneling dynamics. From the point of view of strong field physics, this procedure offers a method of incorporating core effects into the standard strong field approximation. In two dimensions, both the standard and the new semiclassical propagators are shown to give equally accurate results at sufficiently short times, but the new method exhibits much better scaling of the convergence rate with increasing dimensionality.

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PubMed2003

Switched wave packets: a route to nonperturbative quantum control.

The dynamic Stark effect due to a strong nonresonant but nonionizing laser field provides a route to quantum control via the creation of novel superposition states. We consider the creation of a field-free "switched" wave packet through adiabatic turn-on and sudden turn-off of a strong dynamic Stark interaction. There are two limiting cases for such wave packets. The first is a Raman-type coupling, illustrated by the creation of field-free molecular axis alignment. An experimental demonstration is given. The second case is that of dipole-type coupling, illustrated by the creation of charge localization in an array of quantum wells.

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PubMed2003

Tunable optimal compression of ultrabroadband pulses by cross-phase modulation.

We show how cross-phase modulation between two pulses, combined with optimal pulse shaping at the input of a dielectric medium, can be used to generate nearly single-cycle pulses that are tunable from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared at the output of the medium, precompensating for dispersion to all orders.

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PubMed2003

Optimal generation of single-dispersion precompensated 1-fs pulses by molecular phase modulation.

We show how an optimal control approach can be combined with the pump-probe technique for pulse compression by molecular phase modulation in hollow-core fibers to generate single 1-fs pulses in the visible. Varying the intensity and duration of the Gaussian-shaped pump pulse at the input induces optimal rotational response of the molecules. The probe pulse, which scatters off of the resulting time variation of the refractive index, is shaped at the input for optimal compression at the output, including dispersion to all orders.

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PubMed2002

Generation of single dispersion precompensated 1-fs pulses by shaped-pulse optimized high-order stimulated Raman scattering.

We propose and theoretically analyze a new approach for generating and shaping 1-fs pulses. It combines the ideas of strong-field molecular optics and optimal control to manipulate light generation in a pump-probe Raman regime. Flexible phase control over the generated spectrum of about 3 eV width is achieved by controlling the input pulses and maximizing the coherence of medium excitation by adiabatically aligning molecules in the medium with a specially shaped pump pulse. The generated pulse is optimized for an output window, precompensating for its dispersion to all orders.

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