What is Quantum Control?
Quantum control refers to the process of manipulating quantum dynamics through the use of atomic and molecular laser spectroscopy. Using the modern tools of pulsed laser shaping, one can potentially manipulate the state of a quantum system. This ability is important to the problems of controlled quantum dynamics (e.g., selective chemical bond breaking) and quantum computing. In theory, if we know the quantum process and the experimental environment exactly, we can determine the necessary laser pulse shape in advance that would successfully carry out the steps of state preparation, state determination, state transition, and the maintenance of coherence. In practice, incomplete understanding of the quantum process being controlled and the laboratory environment is the single most important obstacle to perform these kinds of experiments successfully. This has been a major stumbling block for many years. Our research effort aims at bringing the engineering technologies of system identification and learning control to bear on this problem. Initial evidence suggests that they might be the right tools to realize the dream of controlled quantum processes.
Recent Highlights:
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Phan, M.Q. and Rabitz, H., "Learning Control of Quantum-Mechanical Systems by Identification of Effective Input-Output Maps," Chemical Physics, Vol. 217, No. 2&3 (Special Issue on Driven Quantum Systems), May 1997, pp. 389-400.
Phan, M.Q. and Rabitz, H., "A Self-Guided Algorithm for Learning Control of Quantum-Mechanical Systems," Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 110, No. 1, January 1999, pp. 34-41.
For additional references on learning control and identification, please refer to List of Publications.