  State selective field ionization detection techniques in physics require a
specific progression through a complicated atomic state space to optimize state
selectivity and overall efficiency. For large principle quantum number n, the
theoretical models become computationally intractable and any results are often
rendered irrelevant by small deviations from ideal experimental conditions, for
example external electromagnetic fields. Several different proposals for
quantum information processing rely heavily upon the quality of these
detectors. In this paper, we show a proof of principle that it is possible to
optimize experimental field profiles in situ by running a genetic algorithm to
control aspects of the experiment itself. A simple experiment produced novel
results that are consistent with analyses of existing results.
