Ultracold Molecular Ions Prepared Via Sympathetic Cooling - A New Frontier for Quantum Interactions and Fundamental Physics

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This award supports the development of techniques to open and explore a new frontier in physics: the production and study of ultracold polar molecular ions. It is expected that the ability to produce such samples could lead to significant technological and fundamental scientific advancements. This includes potentially learning how to control chemistry in the quantum regime, which could aid novel materials and drug design; creating a platform that could be useful in producing a robust and scalable quantum computer; allowing new probes of quantum matter and charge transport; understanding the formation of interstellar clouds; and precision measurement of molecular structure for tests of fundamental physics. The main research objective of this project is to further optimize the methods of cold polar molecular ion production and begin developing the techniques necessary to enable the expected technological and fundamental advancements. As such, this project has the ability to aid the progress of science and in the longer term bolster national prosperity and security.Because molecular ions are easily trapped for many minutes in radio-frequency ion traps, there are possibilities for cooling and interrogation that are not applicable to neutral atoms and molecules. Therefore, this team is developing a technique where molecular ions are co-trapped with laser cooled atomic ions for sympathetic cooling of their motion. The molecules are then immersed in a cloud of laser-cooled calcium atoms which cool the molecular internal quantum states. In this way, cold ground-state molecular ions should be produced. This team will work to answer three challenges facing the field: 1.) Can chemical reactions between atoms and molecular ions be controlled? 2.) Can we produce molecular ions in the absolute internal ground state? 3.) What is the coherence time of the rotational qubit of a molecular ion in a Paul trap?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.