Two-pulse laser control of nuclear and electronic motion

We discuss an explicitly time-dependent two-pulse laser scheme for controlling where nuclei and electrons are going in unimolecular reactions. We focus on electronic motion and show, with HD+ as an example, that one can find non-stationary states where the electron (with some probability) oscillates back and forth between the two nuclei. We discuss how this finding can be used in a scheme for controlling electron transfer in real-time. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.