Properties of wave packets deduced from quantum control fitness landscapes

We demonstrate the versatility of shaped femtosecond dump pulses for the investigation of molecular quantum systems. Model calculations show that population is most efficiently transferred by shaped pulses. Illustrative fitness landscapes, where the excited-state population is analyzed as a function of selected laser pulse parameters, facilitate a characterization of wave packet evolution and the potential energy surfaces. A first experimental implementation is presented for retinal photoisomerization in bacteriorhodopsin. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2007.