The generation and amplification of shaped ultrafast laser pulses, tunable between 500 to 700 nm

Summary form only given. The availability of shaped pulses at high energy is a requisite for quantum control. The development of pulseshaping techniques over the years, has contributed towards experimental realizations of quantum control. These include feedback-optimized shaped pulses to control the photodissociation channels of e.g., an organometallic compound. Recent advances in the amplification of shaped ultrafast pulses has also allowed experiments such as the alteration and control of excitation dynamics of Rb atoms to be performed. This technology is based on chirped pulse regenerative amplification by a Ti:sapphire crystal. Hence, this limits the spectral range of the amplified shaped optical pulses to be in the vicinity of 800 nm. If quantum control and spectroscopy is to be applied in general to a wide range of atomic or molecular systems, then methods need to be developed to generate shaped optical pulses at widely tunable wavelengths to fit the corresponding resonance frequency of the various systems under study.