Coherent control of photoexcitation processes

This is a review of experiments in two pathway optical excitation in which the relative phase between the matrix elements for the two pathways was var ied by the experimenter. Most examples have involved interference between o ne and three-photon absorption matrix elements. However, interference betwe en one and two-photon absorption and also between two color absorptions in different order have been observed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.