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Published on: May 29, 2018
Optimal control in a dissipative system: vibrational excitation of CO/Cu(100) by IR pulses
Stephanie Beyvers1, Yukiyoshi Ohtsuki, Peter Saalfrank
1Institut für Chemie, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, D-14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
Abstract:
The question as to whether state-selective population of molecular vibrational levels by shaped infrared laser pulses is possible in a condensed phase environment is of central importance for such diverse fields as time-resolved spectroscopy, quantum computing, or "vibrationally mediated chemistry." This question is addressed here for a model system, representing carbon monoxide adsorbed on a Cu(100) surface. Three of the six vibrational modes are considered explicitly, namely, the CO stretch vibration, the CO-surface vibration, and a frustrated translation. Optimized infrared pulses for state-selective excitation of "bright" and "dark" vibrational levels are designed by optimal control theory in the framework of a Markovian open-system density matrix approach, with energy flow to substrate electrons and phonons, phase relaxation, and finite temperature accounted for. The pulses are analyzed by their Husimi "quasiprobability" distribution in time-energy space.
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