AbstractWe studied the optimal quantum control of a molecular rotor in tilted laser fields using the time-sliced Herman–Kluk propagator for the evaluation of the optimal pulse and the light–dipole interaction as the control mechanism. The proposed methodology was used to study the effects of an optimal pulse on the evolution of a wave-packet in a double-well potential and in the effective potential of a molecular rotor in a collinear tilted fields setup. The amplitude and frequency of the control pulse were obtained in such a way that the transition probability between two rotational wave-packets was maximised.Keywords: oriented rotational wave-packetsoptimal quantum controlmonotonic schemesinitial value representationuniform semiclassical approximationspulse shaping AcknowledgementsRDG thanks Prof. Gregory S. Ezra and Prof. Thomas Dittrich for encouraging discussions of the proposed methodology at its early stage. We also thank Jonathan Romero for his comments on the different versions of the manuscript.Additional informationFundingThis project has been supported by the Office of Research of UNAL-Bogota [grant DIB 201010017627].