Towards a Chip-Based Architecture for the Production and Study of Ultracold Molecular Ions

该项目旨在开发适用于微制造部署（即微芯片）的技术，用于在低于1/1000 K的温度下操纵和生产带电分子。在这种温度下产生分子离子样品的能力将促进许多科学进步，包括研究和可能控制量子化学；更好地理解电荷输运；对量子物质的新探测；洞察星际云的形成；以及分子跃迁和结构的精确测量，用于基础物理的测试。此外，如果这些方法可以在微制造架构中实现，它们可能会使重要技术取得重大进展，例如用于便携式，高通量化学传感的化学实验室芯片设备，以及健壮的，可扩展的量子计算设备的实现。这项工作的广泛影响超出了可能产生的新科学和技术的明显影响，因为目前有四名博士生正在接受这个项目的科学和技术职业培训。此外，该项目涉及一个重要的本科研究组成部分，旨在增加和保持科学和技术专业中代表性不足的群体的入学率。该项目的另一个目标是利用激光等相关技术对年轻学生的吸引力，促进与当地代表性不足群体的STEM专业的联系和招聘。

This project seeks to develop techniques, amenable to microfabricated deployment (i.e. microchips), for manipulating and producing charged molecules at temperatures less than 1/1000 K. The ability to produce a sample of molecular ions at these temperatures should facilitate a number of scientific advances, including the study and possible control of chemistry in the quantum regime; a better understanding of charge transport; new probes of quantum matter; insights into the formation of interstellar clouds; and precision measurement of molecular transitions and structure for test of fundamental physics. Further, if these methods can be implemented in a microfabricated architecture, they may enable significant advances towards important technologies, such as chemistry-lab-on-a-chip devices envisioned for portable, high-throughput chemical sensing and the implementation of a robust, scalable quantum computation device.The broader impact of this work extends beyond the obvious effects of the new science and technology that may result, as currently four PhD students are being trained for careers in science and technology on this project. Further, this project involves a significant undergraduate research component aimed to increase and maintain enrollment of underrepresented groups in science and technology majors. An additional goal of the project is to leverage the fact that the involved techniques, such as lasers, are captivating to young students to facilitate outreach to and recruitment into STEM majors of local underrepresented groups.