Laser control in a bifurcating region

We present a complete analysis of the laser control of a model molecular system using both optimal control theory and adiabatic techniques. This molecule has a particular potential energy surface with a bifurcating region connecting three potential wells which allows a variety of processes such as isomerization, tunnelling or implementation of quantum gates on one or two qubits. The parameters of the model have been chosen so as to reproduce the main features of H3CO which is a molecule-benchmark for such dynamics. We show the feasibility of different processes and we investigate their robustness against variations of laser field. We discuss the conditions under which each method of control gives the best results. We also point out the relation between optimal control theory and local control.