學術演講

Abstract

The role of molecular spectroscopy in physics has evolved overthe years. It was traditionally used to study molecular structure and itsunderlying quantum mechanics. Later, it led to various applications,including the first “atomic clock” that was actually based on molecularvibrations. More recent advances in techniques for quantum manipulation ofmolecules bring new directions including the use of molecules to search fornew physics and harness molecular resources for quantum engineering.

My group develops new techniques to bring molecules to ultracoldtemperatures and use them as quantum building blocks. I will present ourrecent experimental work on building single gas-phase ultracold molecules.This work allows us to go beyond the usual paradigm of chemical reactionsthat proceed via stochastic encounters between reactants, to a single,controlled reaction of exactly two atoms [1].  We foresee single molecules as valuable resources for quantumsimulation and quantum computation [2] due to their rich internal degrees offreedom and strong dipolar interactions. I will also touch on how ultracoldmolecules (< 1 μK) provide a rich playground to study chemical reactionswhere quantum mechanics plays an important role.

[1] L. R. Liu, J. D.Hood, Y. Yu, J. T. Zhang, N. R. Hutzler, T. Rosenband, K.-K. Ni. Building onemolecule from a reservoir of two atoms. Science 360, 900 (2018);

[2] K.-K. Ni, T. Rosenband, D. D. Grimes. Dipolar exchange quantum logicgate with polar molecules. Chemical Science 9, 6830 (2018)