Femtosecond four-wave mixing for molecule based computation

Analog and digital information can be encoded as spectral amplitude and phase of coherent laser pulses. Nonlinear interactions between light and molecules can be used for performing basic linear algebraic transformations between information in the shaped laser pulses and in the quantum eigenstates. The manipulation of a molecular rovibronic manifold using nonlinear optical processes such as stimulated photon echo is discussed from an information technology point of view. Preliminary experimental results on molecular iodine are presented.