Quadratic chirping, nonadiabatic transition

The laser parameters should be chosen so that a and p can make the nonadiabatic transition probability V as close to unity as possible. Figure 34 depicts the probability P 2 as a function of a and p. There are some areas in which the probabilty is larger than 0.9, such as those around (ot= 1.20, p = 0.85), (ot = 0.53, p = 2.40), (a = 0.38, p = 3.31), and so on. Due to the coordinate dependence of the potential difference A(x) and the transition dipole moment p(x), it is generally impossible to achieve perfect excitation of the wave packet by a single quadratically chirped laser pulse. However, a very high efficiency of the population transfer is possible without significant deformation of the shape of the wave packet, if we locate the wave packet parameters inside one of these islands. The biggest, thus the most useful island, is around ot = 1.20, p = 0.85. The transition probability P 2 is > 0.9, if... 

Figure 34. Contour map of the nonadiabatic transition probability Pn induced by quadratically chirped pulse as a function of the two basic parameters a and p. Taken from Ref. [37]-...

Summary. An effective scheme for the laser control of wavepacket dynamics applicable to systems with many degrees of freedom is discussed. It is demonstrated that specially designed quadratically chirped pulses can be used to achieve fast and near-complete excitation of the wavepacket without significantly distorting its shape. The parameters of the laser pulse can be estimated analytically from the Zhu-Nakamura (ZN) theory of nonadiabatic transitions. The scheme is applicable to various processes, such as simple electronic excitations, pump-dumps, and selective bond-breaking, and, taking diatomic and triatomic molecules as examples, it is actually shown to work well. 

---