  We investigate computationally a method for ultrafast preparation of alkali
metal atoms in their Rydberg states using a three-dimensional model potential
in the single active electron approximation. By optimizing laser pulse shapes
that can be generated with modern waveform synthesizers, we propose pulses for
controlling the population transfer from the ground state to a preselected set
of Rydberg states. Dynamical processes under the optimized pulses are shown to
be much more complicated than in the traditional optical two-photon preparation
of Rydberg states.
