Photochemical applications of phase-modulus interdependencies

After an accolade to Joshua Jortner, we trace the influences of his chemistry background in his physics writings. On the way, we note the richness of physics in principles (or large-scale laws) and the fact-orientedness of chemistry. Next we turn to a recent laser-induced electron-detachment experiment and utilize analytic properties of the developing wave packet in the (complex) time domain, studied by us previously, to relate the phase of the optimized laser field to its intensity. It is suggested that these results can be used to reduce the labor of pulse optimization in phase-intensity controlled reaction dynamics. Phase-intensity interdependencies are also established in simulated results (obtained with the electron nuclear dynamics END-algorithm) for photoexcited hydrogen molecules.