Phase-conjugate picture of a wave-packet interference design for arbitrary target states

Abstract

Target states are specifically desired states of systems that allow the control of processes or the investigation of unique phenomena. A time-domain scheme for the excitation of such states by the interference of multiple wave packets is developed. The scheme leads to analytical results for the optical field required to excite an arbitrary target state. The scheme suggests a clear physical picture for the design process that is applicable to many systems. The design has strong similarities to the phase-conjugation process in optics. A strong point of the scheme is that it picks a simple set of solutions from the infinite number of possible solutions for a particular target state. This characteristic may be attributed to the choice of a classical wave-packet basis as the appropriate basis for this time-domain scheme. We show that a small number of pulses are sufficient to produce a wide range of target states (both classical and nonclassical target states are designed).