Is optimal control quantum, semi-classical, or classical?

I had a great meeting with Paul Brumer today, where he answered many of the questions I posted previously about quantum control. Here are just a few of the things I learnt:

In a 2005 PRL, Paul and Hoki did a careful analysis of experiments on the optimum pulses for photo-isomerisation of the dye NK88 in methanol. They found that the optimum pulses corresponded to an incoherent pump-dump scenario and that quantum interference effects were absent.

In a J. Chem. Phys. papers in 2005 and 2006 Christopher, Shapiro, and Brumer considered the pulse sequences needed to optimise internal conversion of S2 to S2 in pyrazine by considering the full time evolution of an effective Hamiltonian for these two states taking into account 24 vibrational modes. They found "active control over internal conversion so as to almost completely suppress the process over time scales of ~50–100 fs [well in excess of the natural internal conversion times (~20 fs)] or to accelerate it to complete internal conversion in less than 5 fs". One thing I want to understand better is how this relates to a conical intersection picture for internal conversion.

A recent experimental paper in PNAS found quantum coherence did not play a significant role in the isomerisation of retinal in bacteriorhodopsin, presenting a different view from a 2006 Science paper from Miller's group in Toronto.