Dynamics of radiation induced isomerization for HCN-CNH

We have analyzed the dynamics underlying the use of sequential radiation pulses to control the isomerization between the HCN and the CNH molecules. The appearance of avoided crossings among Floquet eigenphases as the molecule interacts with the radiation pulses is the key to understanding the isomerization dynamics, both in the adiabatic and nonadiabatic regimes. We find that small detunings of the incident pulses can have a significant effect on the outcome of the isomerization process for the model we consider. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.