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

Target states are specifically desired states of systems that allow the con trol of processes or the investigation of unique phenomena. A time-domain s cheme for the excitation of such states by the interference of multiple wav e packets is developed. The scheme leads to analytical results for the opti cal field required to er;cite an arbitrary target state. The scheme suggest s a clear physical picture for thr design process that is applicable to man y systems. The design has strong similarities to the phase-conjugation proc ess in optics. A strong point of the scheme is that it picks a simple set o f solutions from the infinite number of possible solutions for a particular target state. This characteristic may be attributed to the choice of a cla ssical wave-packet basis as the appropriate basis for this time-domain sche me. 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 d esigned). [S1050-2947(99)07805-1].