Research Interests

Laser-cooled Molecules for Quantum Science

Ultracold molecules promise to be a versatile new quantum resource, useful for applications ranging from quantum simulation to precision tests that search for physics beyond the Standard Model. The rich internal structure of molecules (vibrations and rotations) gives rise to features beyond those found in other quantum systems such as neutral atoms and ions. For example, polar molecules are endowed with an electric dipole in their electronic ground state, which can be used to engineer strong, long-range, and anisotropic interactions while maintaining long lifetimes. For quantum simulation of many-body systems, this can open the door to new classes of models, ranging from a variety of lattice spin models to extended Hubbard models. For quantum information processing, the long lifetimes of molecules in their ground state, along with the long-range dipolar coupling, could allow one to realize long-lived qubits with high fidelity two-qubit gates.

Nevertheless, the rich internal structure of molecules leads to challenges in their production cooling, and quantum control. On this front, there have been rapid advances in the past few years, especially in the techniques of coherently assembly of molecules from atoms, and direct laser-cooling.

Laser-cooled Molecules in a Reconfigurable Optical Tweezer Array

In our lab, we use laser-cooling to create and detect large arrays of single CaF molecules trapped in programmable optical tweezer traps. In molecular tweezer platform, each molecule can be detected non-destructively with high fidelity and controlled individually. Because of the long-ranged interactions between long-lived molecular states, our platform potentially could provide long evolution times for quantum simulation and deep circuit depths for digital quantum computing. Our platform also could open up new directions such as quantum-enhanced metrology with molecules and the study of ultracold collisions and chemical reactions with entangled molecules.

Funding:

We gratefully acknowledge the following sources: