Simple Route to Strong-Field Coherent Control

Coherent-control schemes to manipulate weak-field interactions are generally invalid at stronger fields, since strong-field interactions are accompanied by level power broadenings and level shifts that usually elude simple analytical treatments. Here we show that a broad subgroup of weak-field solutions (those with real fields, i.e., fields with only one quadrature in the complex plane) can be extended to the strong-field regime while retaining their properties. The salient feature of these fields is a symmetry that cancels out power broadening effects. Such fields can be generated from ultrashort coherent pulses or from incoherent broadband down-converted light. Weak-field coherent-control approaches based on these solutions can therefore be extended to the strong-field regime as we demonstrate in a two-photon absorption experiment in atomic cesium.