Compensating for spatial laser profile effects on the control of quantum systems - art. no. 013409

This paper investigates the influence of experimentally nonuniform spatial laser profiles on controlling quantum dynamics. The influence of Gaussian ( TEM00), donut (TEM01*), and uniform laser profiles upon quantum control yie ld is considered. Nonuniform laser profiles can reduce the control yield, b ut it is shown that this effect can be diminished, by designing optimized l aser pulses explicitly taking into account the spatial laser profile. These laser pulses are of significantly different structure than the ones for un iform profiles. This result suggests that an analysis of experimental laser fields to gain information on the resultant physical processes will be mor e difficult for pulses with nonuniform profiles. The simulations indicate t hat direct closed loop control in the laboratory can learn to operate effec tively with nonuniform profiles.