Optimized pulse shaping experiments were carried out on the control of two-photon excitation efficiency of an alpha-perylene crystal in the temperature region from 30 to 290 K. It was found that a pulse train with a pulse interval of 90 fs and an alternately reversing phase relation increased the excitation efficiency by a factor of 2 for the whole temperature region. The pulse shape characteristic for effective efficiency increase was educed by double pulse experiments in which the dependence of the emission intensity on the pulse interval and relative phase between pulses were measured. The mechanism of the efficiency increase is briefly discussed using a sliding-window Fourier transform of the pulse shape. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.