Sequential optical response suppression for chemical mixture characterization

TL;DR

This paper presents a quantum tracking control method that uses a single, scalable pulse to distinguish and quantify components in spectroscopically similar quantum mixtures, with applications demonstrated in gas-phase molecules and solid materials.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum control approach for mixture characterization that enhances component distinguishability with a pulse length scaling linearly with mixture size.

Findings

Effective in gas-phase diatomic mixtures

Successful in solid-state material mixtures

Pulse length scales linearly with number of components

Abstract

The characterization of mixtures of non-interacting, spectroscopically similar quantum components has important applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science. We introduce an approach based on quantum tracking control that allows for determining the relative concentrations of constituents in a quantum mixture, using a single pulse which enhances the distinguishability of components of the mixture and has a length that scales linearly with the number of mixture constituents. To illustrate the method, we consider two very distinct model systems: mixtures of diatomic molecules in the gas phase, as well as solid-state materials composed of a mixture of components. A set of numerical analyses are presented, showing strong performance in both settings.