  Combining the features of molecular wires and femtosecond laser pulses gives
the unique opportunity to optically switch electron currents in molecular
devices with very high speed. Based on a weak-coupling approximation between
wire and leads a quantum master equation for the population dynamics and the
electric current through the molecular wire has been developed which allows for
arbitrary time-dependent laser fields interacting with the wire. This formalism
is combined with the theory of optimal control. For a tight-binding
approximation of the wire we show how to compute the laser pulses to switch the
current through the wire on and off. With this approach the desired pattern of
the current in time can be chosen in an almost arbitrary fashion.
