Control of THz emission from Stark wave packets

We present calculations of the quantum control of THz emission from Stark w ave packets in sodium. Our method is based on the direct integration of the one-electron, time-dependent Schrodinger equation on a non-uniform, finite difference grid. We find that simple, experimentally feasible laser pulses are sufficient to optimize the frequency and intensity of the emitted THz radiation. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of the ex citation pulse. Our results indicate that the dynamics, and hence the emitt ed radiation, depend sensitively on these parameters, and that the control space is rich and quite complicated.