The recent availability of high intensity, ultrashort (< 200 fs) pulses has led to a large number of experimental investigations of transient optical coherence effects. Transient coherent effects are now reproducible enough to be used as tools for measuring relaxation rates, molecular structure, and chemical reaction dynamics. This paper reviews the topic of coherence as it relates to atom-fiel...

We demonstrate high resolution coherent control of cold atomic rubidium utilizing spectral phase manipulation of a femtosecond optical frequency comb. Transient coherent accumulation is directly manifested by the enhancement of signal amplitude and spectral resolution via the pulse number. The combination of frequency comb technology and spectral phase manipulation enables coherent control tech...

We employ ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy with temporal pulse shaping to manipulate coherent phonon excitation and quantify the strength of electron-phonon coupling in CdTe1 xSex nanocrystals (NCs). Raman active CdSe and CdTe longitudinal optical phonon (LO) modes are excited and probed in the time domain. By temporally controlling pump pulse pairs to coherently excite and cancel co...

A technique is presented for treating strongly nonstationary and transient processes in optics, permitting one to take into account both types of competing with each other effects, quantum as well as coherent. The main equations for describing the interplay between these two kinds of effects are derived. The possibility of influencing coherent optical phenomena by preparing special quantum stat...

Optical Properties of Strongly Coupled Plasmon-Exciton Hybrid Nanostructures by Nche Tumasang Fofang Strongly coupled plasmon-exciton hybrid nanostructures are fabricated and their optical properties are studied. The plasmonic and excitonic systems are gold nanoshells and J-aggregates, respectively. Gold nanoshells are tunable plasmonic core-shell nanoparticles which can sustain distinct dipole...

We employed femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to analyze the response of the electronic structure of the 122 Fe-pnictide parent compounds Ba/EuFe(2)As(2) and optimally doped BaFe(1.85)Co(0.15)As(2) near the Γ point to optical excitation by an infrared femtosecond laser pulse. We identify pronounced changes of the electron population within several 100 meV above and...