Production of Ultracold Weakly Bound Polar Molecules and Trapping of Ground State Noble Gases

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。该研究旨在更好地了解原子和分子在极低温度下如何与激光相互作用--包括从极冷的原子合成非常冷的分子，对这些分子的结构进行高精度研究，以及在这些分子形成后进一步降低其温度的新技术。虽然了解这些相互作用具有基本的科学意义，但所收集的知识也对开发下一代高科技应用程序至关重要，例如，这些应用程序有望在计算、通信、医学和小型物体制造方面取得重大进展。这项研究还有助于为理解在非常低的温度下发生的化学反应奠定基础，在那里，量子力学的一些反直觉的效应可以用来实际控制化学反应，以便产生用传统技术很难产生的所需反应产品。近年来，科学的边界在传统边界之间出现了模糊，实现进入日常生活的应用需要科学家和工程师以跨学科的方式工作。虽然该研究计划可以被相当程度地描述为“原子和分子物理”，但它也涉及量子化学和控制，因此除了回答提出的非常具体的科学问题外，它还有助于发展日益增长的跨学科努力。此外，该研究计划对人力资源开发做出了非常重要的贡献。对毕业后能够以跨学科方式解决科学、技术和社会中广泛问题的高技能学生的培训，为联邦政府在研究方面的投资提供了广泛和直接的回报。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The research is aimed at developing a better physical understanding of how atoms and molecules interact with laser light at extremely cold temperatures- including the synthesis of very cold molecules from very cold atoms, high precision study of the structure of these molecules, and new techniques for reducing the temperature of these molecules even further once they are formed. While understanding these interactions is of fundamental scientific interest, the knowledge gleaned is also critical for developing the next generation of high-tech applications which are expected to yield significant advances in computing, communications, medicine, and fabrication of small-scale objects, for example. The research is also helping to lay the foundation for understanding chemical reactions at very cold temperatures where some of the counter-intuitive effects of quantum mechanics can be used to actually control chemical reactions in order produce desired reaction products which may be hard to produce by conventional techniques.In recent years, the frontiers of science have seen a blurring between traditional boundaries, and the realization of applications which find their way into everyday life has required scientists and engineers to work in a cross-disciplinary fashion. While the research program can be fairly characterized as "atomic and molecular physics", it also involves quantum chemistry and control and so contributes to the development of a growing interdisciplinary endeavor in addition to answering the very specific scientific questions posed. Furthermore, the research program makes a very significant contribution to human resource development. The training of highly skilled students who upon graduation are capable of tackling- in an interdisciplinary manner- a wide range of problems within science, technology, and society in general, provides a broad and immediate return on the federal investments made in the research.