Adaptive control of lasers and their interactions with matter

Several results on the use of adaptive feedback methods in controlling lasers and their interactions with matter are presented. First, a genetic algorithm-based feedback loop for optimizing laser pulses in a femtosecond pump-probe experiment is described. For simple control experiments, feedback can achieve the desired goal even in the presence of experimental noise. Second, experiments in which feedback is used to control the motion of charge carriers in quantum wells are described. Finally, experiments in which adaptive feedback is used to compensate phase dispersion in chirped pulse amplifiers by monitoring the ionization rate of molecules in a spectral blueshift experiment are described.