Control of selectivity of chemical reaction via control of wave packet evolution

A time-dependent formulation of two-photon spectroscopy is employed to show that selectivity of reactivity can be achieved via coherent two-photon processes. The problem of finding the optimum waveform (i.e., coherent pulse sequence) that will maximize the formation of a desired chemical species is formulated as a problem in the calculus of variations, and solved for two different cases.