Altering the Course of Chemical Dynamics Phenomena

Herschel Rabitz得到了理论与计算化学项目的资助，致力于开发新技术，使化学家能够利用一系列激光脉冲控制化学反应的结果。一个外部控制场将被用来进入化学系统的量子态，否则没有这种干预通常是无法达到的。一般控制原理包括主动操纵量子波干涉。最优控制理论为实现分子控制目标提供了最通用的框架。来自正在进行的实验的实时反馈与学习控制算法相结合，将用于获得理想结果的最佳脉冲序列。自从激光发明以来，化学家们一直梦想着有选择地激发分子内的区域，从而导致受控的化学反应发生。然而，人们很久以前就认识到，分子内振动能量的重新分配发生得如此之快，以至于不可能把足够的能量集中在一个选定的键上，使它断裂。现在，随着激光脉冲调制技术的出现和控制理论的应用，激光选择化学的梦想似乎可能成为现实。

Herschel Rabitz is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to develop new techniques aimed at enabling chemists to control the outcome of a chemical reaction using a sequence of laser pulses. An external control field will be used to access quantum states of a chemical system that otherwise would not normally be reached without such intervention. The general control principle consists of actively manipulating quantum wave interferences. Optimal control theory provides the most general framework for achieving the molecular control objectives. Real-time feedback from the experiment in progress coupled with learning control algorithms will be used to obtain the optimal pulse sequences for the desired outcome. Since the invention of the laser, chemists have dreamed of selectively exciting regions within a molecule thus causing a controlled chemical reaction to occur. It was long ago realized, however, that intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution occurs so rapidly that it is impossible to concentrate enough energy in a selected bond to cause it to break. Now, with the advent of laser pulse modulation techniques, and the application of control theory, it appears that the dream of laser selective chemistry may become a reality.