Coherence and Control in Chemistry: Faraday Discussions No 153

This volume focuses on assessing recent progress in our general understanding of coherence and control in chemistry and defining new avenues for future research. The prospect of exploiting quantum interference to direct the outcome of a chemical reaction is known as coherent control. Over the last twenty years or so, many schemes to exploit the coherence property of laser light have been proposed to exert such control over molecules, and in the last decade or so these have become realisable through advances in laser and pulse shaping technology. Many practical demonstrations of molecular coherent control, with applications ranging from laser cooling of molecules to chemically selective bond breaking or the generation of coherent x-ray light through high harmonic generation, have been made. We now also know that many photochemical reactions of fundamental importance in biology appear to exploit quantum coherence in order to transfer energy efficiently to do work rather than dissipate the energy as heat. This volume brings together experimentalists and theoreticians working in all areas of physics and chemistry who have an interest in probing and controlling chemical interactions at the quantum resolved level.