Colloquia

Ultrafast laser pulses allow us to 'take pictures' of atoms and molecules on their natural timescales (~10 ^-14 s). They can also be used to exert very strong and controlled forces, allowing us to direct the dynamics of the system they interact with. I will describe a series of experiments which aim to control and measure the wave function for a molecule as it dissociates. The ultimate aims of our efforts are to use shaped laser pulses as 'photonic reagents' and to make 'molecular movies', which depict the evolution of the molecular wave function as a function of time.