Benjamin L. Augenbraun’s research while affiliated with MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and other places

... Recently, researchers have identified ultracold molecules as powerful tools for all of these areas, spurring rapid growth in molecular cooling methods. Ultracold molecules have been produced by assembling ultracold atoms via magneto-association [9,10], photo-association [11][12][13], optoelectrical Sisyphus cooling [14], and by buffer gas cooling followed by direct laser cooling [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Quantum computation, quantum simulation and precision searches for physics beyond the Standard Model have been demonstrated, utilizing optical traps [21] and optical tweezer arrays of ultracold molecules [22][23][24][25]. ...

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Conveyor-belt magneto-optical trapping of molecules

... At present, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures recommends only two frequency standards in the mid-infrared, one at 3.39 µm based on CH 4 with a relative uncertainty of 3 × 10 −12 , and the other at 10.3 µm based on OsO 4 with an uncertainty of 1.4 × 10 −13 [35]. Recent advances in cooling and controlling neutral molecules [36,37] and molecular ions [38] raise the prospect of a set of new frequency standards in the mid-infrared, based on the vibrational frequencies of trapped molecules, whose precision could match that available in the microwave and optical domains (10 −16 or better). These frequency standards could then be used to calibrate large sets of spectral lines in common gases such as N 2 O. Suitable molecular clocks are currently being developed, motivated in part by their potential to search for varying fundamental constants [18,[39][40][41][42]. ...

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Wavelength modulation laser spectroscopy of N2O at 17 µm

... Moreover, cryogenic cooling has already made it possible to demonstrate quantum control over molecular chirality 85 . Further developments in this area, such as the possible laser cooling of chiral molecules 86 , promise to open a path to finally detecting the long-anticipated energy difference between different enantiomers of a chiral molecule due to the EWI 87 . As the field of ultracold molecules continues to advance, further ideas for harnessing the rich quantum resources associated with molecular degrees of freedom are likely to emerge, making this a most exciting time for the field. ...

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Quantum sensing and metrology for fundamental physics with molecules

... However, both methods require specific molecular structures, which limit the choice of molecules. Furthermore, laser cooling needs 10 4 −10 5 photon scattering events and thus demands high precision spectroscopy, which is challenging and time-consuming for many heavy-atom containing [29,30] or large polyatomic molecules [31,32]. ...

Reference:

Sympathetic cooling and slowing of molecules with Rydberg atoms

... As a result, there has been considerable experimental effort to bring molecules into the quantum toolbox. Diatomic molecules have been prepared in single quantum states and entangled [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]; polyatomic molecules are beginning to be explored with already some success in trapping and cooling [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]; and a number of laser-free quantum logic schemes have been proposed [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. ...

Reference:

Æ codes

... Polyatomic molecules, on the other hand, play crucial roles in the chemical and biological sciences and also exhibit numerous features advantageous for applications in physics. [18,19] For instance, they are of interest for improved searches for the electric dipole moment of the electron and other beyondstandard-model physics. [20] Chiral molecular ions offer possibilities for investigating parity violation, [21,22] while symmetric-top molecules with closely-spaced parity doublets present opportunities in the field of quantum simulation [23] and quantum information science. ...

Reference:

Exploring and Controlling Chemistry Using Quantum Logic

... This suggests that even large molecules could potentially be laser-cooled if they possess optical cycling centers consisting of one metal atom and an attached entity. 79,[156][157][158] This means that the laser cooling technique for diatomic molecules can be extended to polyatomic molecules. However, polyatomic molecules have greater complexity and more degrees of freedom compared to diatomic molecules, which require a more complex control, and more repump lasers to form a quasicycling transition that is enough to capture the molecules. ...

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Laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of molecules

... Molecular optical cycling and direct laser cooling were first demonstrated for diatomic species, [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] and have now been extended to some triatomic [38][39][40] and a small polyatomic molecule CaOCH 3 [41]. Spectroscopic investigations of Ca-containing and Sr-containing phenoxides along with their derivatives via molecular functionalization, [42][43][44][45] have shown promise for optical cycling of much larger species with measured vibrational branching fractions of 0.84-0.99. Further, a variety of large polyatomic OCC systems have been proposed theoretically for these appli-cations, including alkaline-earth-metal-containing alkoxides [6][7][8]46], arenes [9,[47][48][49][50], fullerenes [51], diamondoids [46], and surfaces [27]. ...

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Bottom-up approach to scalable growth of molecules capable of optical cycling

... Molecular optical cycling and direct laser cooling were first demonstrated for diatomic species, [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] and have now been extended to some triatomic [38][39][40] and a small polyatomic molecule CaOCH 3 [41]. Spectroscopic investigations of Ca-containing and Sr-containing phenoxides along with their derivatives via molecular functionalization, [42][43][44][45] have shown promise for optical cycling of much larger species with measured vibrational branching fractions of 0.84-0.99. Further, a variety of large polyatomic OCC systems have been proposed theoretically for these appli-cations, including alkaline-earth-metal-containing alkoxides [6][7][8]46], arenes [9,[47][48][49][50], fullerenes [51], diamondoids [46], and surfaces [27]. ...

Reference:

Bottom-up approach to scalable growth of molecules capable of optical cycling

... This is because molecular quantum coherence is particularly fragile to decoherence (or quantum noise) processes that arise due to the unavoidable and uncontrollable interactions of the molecules with their surrounding environment or bath. [7][8][9][10][11][12] In fact, electronic ( ∼10 fs) and vibrational (∼1000 fs) decoherence in molecules is typically remarkably fast. [12][13][14] To harness the potential of molecular qubits in QIS, it is important to identify robust molecular design principles to generate quantum subspaces with protected quantum coherence. ...

Reference:

Decoherence dynamics in molecular qubits: Exponential, Gaussian and beyond