Synthesizing and Harnessing Ultracold Single Molecules for Quantum Simulations

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Atoms and molecules are the building blocks of everyday matter, and scientists are learning to control these building blocks with ever more precision. In one noteworthy example, quantum control of atoms was used to build atomic clocks that enable the Global Positioning System (GPS). More recently, scientists discovered that atoms and molecules can be harnessed to build a quantum simulator, a resource for studying complex quantum phenomena. This is important because quantum simulators may lead to advances in chemistry, medicine, computation, and several other scientific fields that contribute to the national health and economy. However, a reliable way to build useful quantum simulators is not yet known. This project aims to pioneer methods to prepare and control individual molecules for use in a quantum simulator. If these basic steps are successful, then larger quantum simulators can be built using these principles. This project will also train graduate students and undergraduate students to use molecular physics and quantum control techniques, and this will prepare them to participate in the high technology work force.This project aims to develop a source of trapped ultracold ground-state molecules with single particle manipulation and detection capability, which are crucial to future quantum applications. To develop tools to build such diatomic molecules atom-by-atom, many widely used Atomic Molecular and Optical (AMO) physics techniques need to be further updated and expanded in order to access a much broader array of atoms and molecules. This includes the ability to trap single atoms by fast alternating trapping and cooling beams to eliminate light shifts, Raman sideband cooling of single atoms outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, and coherent all-optical atom-to-molecule conversion without large spontaneous emission. Many new tools will be explored, including atomic species-dependent optical tweezers for transportation without motional excitation. Combining such exquisite control of individual atoms with a tightly focused spectroscopy laser beam will enable the first realization of single molecule spectroscopy in the gas phase. Such a novel source of two atoms would also provide a new paradigm of collisional study in which the exact number of participating collision partners are prepared. Furthermore, one could use the rich manifold of internal states of molecules as synthetic dimensions, strong electric dipolar interactions, and flexible geometric arrangement of the molecules in order to study novel phases of matter such as many-body localization and a quantum dipolar spin liquid.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.