(308b) Manufacturing and Design of Laser Fields for Engineering Molecular Dynamics

Advances in quantum control theory and optimization as well as in ultrafast optics have enabled the dynamic control of chemical reactions using first-principles quantum chemical models. Here, shaped laser pulses, rather than chemical catalysts, are designed and manufactured to selectively break or rearrange a molecule's bonds. For the purpose of spectroscopy, laser fields may be crafted and used as photonic reagents to optically and dynamically discriminate (ODD) compounds with very similar chemical properties. Specifically, in ODD, the subtle differences between different chemicals’ intramolecular structure are magnified through their unique quantum dynamical interactions with optimally designed fields. These two phenomena are examples of a new paradigm in chemical engineering design where photons rather than molecules are the products. In our group, we investigate different control schemes for the dynamical manipulation of molecular reaction and spectroscopy in gases, taking advantage of the high duty cycle of photonic reagent manufacturing. In this talk we provide an overview of the properties of photonics reagents, how they are designed, and how they are manufactured.