CAREER: Interactions in Cold Molecular Systems

这一职业奖支持一项实验研究计划，该计划调查在接近绝对零度的未探索温度区域内的冷和超冷分子碰撞和化学反应。极性分子之间的相互作用与冷原子之间的相互作用有很大不同。分子系统中存在的长程偶极-偶极相互作用不仅在大小上是各向异性的，而且在符号上也是各向异性的。这些大的各向异性相互作用创造了新的动力学和处理来控制极性分子系统中的碰撞。冷分子将由斯塔克减速产生，它使用不均匀的电场来减缓分子的静止。产生的分子将利用电场和磁场被捕获，从而导致长时间的相互作用，从而精确地测量碰撞。一旦冷而致密的样品被创造出来，将在毫开尔文温度下研究与Rb原子的化学反应和碰撞。到目前为止，化学家还不能研究10K以下的反应。了解较低温度的反应对于模拟包括星际云化学在内的几个相关化学系统是至关重要的。这项工作的更广泛影响包括一项改善学生实验科学学习的综合计划。本课程将涉及几个层次的学生。第一组将是物理专业的高年级本科生。本科生通常不会接触到专业研究的过程。大多数高级实验室课程本质上是食谱，未能教会学生进行独立研究所需的技能。将采取系统的、以评价为基础的方法来改变高级实验课程的结构和内容，以解决本科教育中的这一不足。除了调整高级实验课程外，还举办了一场名为？从灯泡到激光？将被开发为向中学年龄的女孩介绍实验科学。

This CAREER award supports an experimental research program investigating cold and ultracold molecular collisions and chemical reactions in an unexplored temperature regime close to absolute zero. Interactions between polar molecules are critically different from those between cold atoms. The long-range dipole-dipole interactions present in molecular systems are anisotropic not only in magnitude, but also in sign. These large anisotropic interactions create new dynamics and handles to control collisions in polar molecule systems. Cold molecules will be produced by Stark deceleration, which uses inhomogeneous electric fields to slow the molecules to rest. The resulting molecules will be trapped using electric and magnetic fields leading to long interactions times and thus precise measurements of the collisions. Once the cold dense samples are created, chemical reactions and collisions with rubidium atoms will be studied at milliKelvin temperatures. Until now, chemists have been not been able to study reactions below 10K. Understanding lower temperature reactions is critical to modeling several relevant chemical systems including interstellar cloud chemistry. The broader impacts of this work include an integrated plan for improving student learning of experimental science. Several levels of students will be addressed in this program. The first group will be upper-level undergraduate physics majors. Undergraduate students often are not exposed to the process of professional research. Most senior lab courses are cookbook in nature and fail to teach students the necessary skills for independent research. A systematic, evaluation-based approach will be taken to change the senior-level lab course in both structure and content to address this deficiency in undergraduate education. In addition to restructuring the senior lab course, a workshop session titled ?From light bulbs to lasers? will be developed to introduce middle-school-aged girls to experimental science.