Theory of Laser Catalysis with Pulses

We present a time dependent theory of laser catalysis, a process in which a strong light source is used to aaect tunneling through a potential barrier by inducing a transient electronic excitation to a bound state. We have performed detailed calculations of pulsed laser catalysis on a one-dimensional Eckart potential as a function of the collision energy and the laser's central-frequency. As in the CW case, the barrier transmission coeecients range from 100% tunneling on the blue side, to complete suppression of tunneling on the red side, of the radiatively broadened line. The point of perfect transmission is explained in the dressed state picture in terms of the equivalence between adiabatic laser cataly-sis and transmission through a double-barrier potential. The point of complete suppression of tunneling is shown to result from non-adiabatic destructive interference between the non-radiative tunneling and the optically assisted route.