Coherent control is a technique to manipulate wave functions of matter with light. Coherent control of isolated atoms and molecules in the gas phase is well-understood and developed since the 1990s, whereas its application to condensed matter is more difficult because its coherence lifetime is shorter. We have recently applied this technique to condensed matter samples, one of which is solid para-hydrogen (p-H₂). Intramolecular vibrational excitation of solid p-H₂ gives an excited vibrational wave function called a “vibron”, which is delocalized over many hydrogen molecules in a manner similar to a Frenkel exciton. It has a long coherence lifetime, so we have chosen solid p-H₂ as our first target in the condensed phase. We shine a time-delayed pair of femtosecond laser pulses on p-H₂ to generate vibrons. Their interference results in modulation of the amplitude of their superposition. Scanning the interpulse delay on the attosecond time scale gives a high interferometric contrast, which demonstrates the possibility of using solid p-H₂ as a carrier of information encoded in the vibrons.

中文翻译：

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凝聚态物质的超快相干控制，具有阿秒精度

相干控制是一种操纵光的物质波函数的技术。自1990年代以来，气相中对孤立原子和分子的相干控制已得到很好的理解和发展，而由于其相干寿命较短，因此将其应用于冷凝物更加困难。最近，我们将这种技术应用于冷凝物样品，其中之一是固体对氢（p -H ₂）。固体p -H _2的分子内振动激发产生称为“振动子”的激发振动波函数，该振动函数以类似于Frenkel激子的方式在许多氢分子上离域。它具有较长的相干寿命，因此我们选择了固态p -H ₂作为我们凝聚阶段的第一个目标。我们将一对延迟的飞秒激光脉冲照射在p -H _2上以产生振动子。它们的干扰导致其叠加幅度的调制。在亚秒级的时间尺度上扫描脉冲间延迟可得出较高的干涉对比，这表明可以将固体p -H ₂用作振动子中编码信息的载体。