Optical Quantum Control

Optimal Quantum Control is a physics simulation model. It deals with the concepts of optics and pulses.

In this simulation, you can manipulate a pulse of light in that is called optical pulse shaping. Light is reflected off a diffraction grating, which breaks it into individual colors. Then, masks are applied to individual colors and another diffraction grating is used to put all the colors back together, in the desired time dependence of the intensity or "shape". If you go to the "Help" menu, you will find a nice, detailed explanation of the process.

In the simulation model, you don't really apply any masks. You choose how much of a single color you want to let through by dragging and dropping. The goal of the simulation is for you to match an output pulse shape to make the molecule break apart. You are shown how close you are in a percentage and you can see the output pulse wave if that helps you. Since I don't know anything about pulses and diffraction, I found myself just dragging and dropping until I got it right, but students of the topic will probably know what to do right away.

In short, this is a very nice simulation. It has a detailed explanation of what it is and how it works.