Efficient algorithm for optimal control of mixed-state quantum systems - art. no. 012101

Zhu and Rabitz [J. Chem. Phys. 109, 385 (1998)] presented a rapidly converg ent iterative algorithm for optimal control of the expectation value of a p ositive-definite observable in a pure-state quantum system. In this paper w e generalize this algorithm to a quantum-statistical mechanics setting and show that it is both efficient in the mixed-state case and effective in ach ieving the control objective of maximizing the ensemble average of arbitrar y observables in the cases studied.