Formation and Applications of Ultracold Molecules

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This program will study the formation and applications of ultracold molecules with translational temperatures less than 0.001 K. The formation of the homonuclear molecule Rb_2 and the heteronuclear molecule KRb will be investigated by photoassociation (PA) of ultracold atoms, emphasizing two newly proposed novel variants of PA in which a long-range state of a molecule is mixed quantum mechanically with a short-range state. Either of the two variant schemes can lead to formation of molecules in their lowest energy states. These molecules, trapped in a so-called optical trap, will be examined to determine their elastic, inelastic, and chemically reactive collision rates, which are expected to be vastly different from rates extrapolated from higher temperatures. External electric and magnetic fields will be applied to observe their anticipated major influence on collision rates.The broader impacts are that it will integrate fundamental research with education at the graduate, postdoctoral, and undergraduate level through group meetings, mentoring, workshops, seminars, and collaborations. The research will have cross-disciplinary implications, including contributions to the proposed application of ultracold polar molecules for quantum information processing. Presentations and papers by the program participants will contribute to scientific understanding, including areas such as ultracold chemistry, fundamental symmetries, quantum information, and nanoscience, and to international scientific cooperation.