Classical aspects emerging from local control of energy and particle transfer in molecules

The question in how far classical mechanics can be used to describe coherent control processes in molecules is addressed within the framework of local control theory. Therefore, quantum and classical calculations are compared for a model proton transfer process and also for the multi-photon infrared dissociation of the HOD molecule. It is shown that control fields can be derived classically as long as wave packet dispersion is not too large. This hints at further applications which might be helpful to devise control fields for complex molecular systems being present in biological processes.