Coherent control of multiphoton transitions with femtosecond pulse shaping- art. no. 033410

We explore the effects of ultrafast shaped pulses for two-level systems tha t do not have a single-photon resonance, by developing a multiphoton densit y-matrix approach. We take advantage of the fact that the dynamics of the i ntermediate virtual states are absent within our laser pulse time scales. U nder these conditions, the multiphoton results are similar to those for a s ingle photon, and it is possible to extend the single-photon coherent contr ol ideas to develop multiphoton coherent control.