Title: Exercising control over atoms, molecules and photons

Abstract: One of the evergreen themes in photonics is the control and manipulation of atoms, molecules and photons using custom–made interactions. Coherent control, which is based on quantum coherence and interference in optical transitions, covers several new aspects of laser-atom/molecule interactions such as control of chemical reactions, control of the optical properties of a medium, control of light propagation and search for negative refractive index. Laser cooling and trapping of atoms is an example of controlling the external degrees of freedom using laser photons to realize atomic samples at ultra-low temperatures, thereby providing new avenues of basic and applied research. Control of light emission using photonic nanostructures is yet another interesting area which has a number of technological applications. Also there exist purely chemical physics inspired strategies which seek to control light emission of molecules using host-guest assemblies. In this talk we discuss the ideas underlying this progress with examples provided from our research work.