UConn Physics Colloquium

The low-energy internal structure of a diatomic molecule, e.g. the electric dipole moment and vibrational, rotational, and Ω-doublet levels, presents a host of opportunities for advances in quantum simulation, precision measurement, cold chemistry, and quantum information. As such, the last decade has witnessed an enormous effort towards producing ultracold molecules in well-defined rovibrational states [1]. Though this work has focused almost exclusively on neutral molecules, a sample of ultracold molecular ions presents interesting possibilities as many of the goals of cold molecule physics can be accomplished with molecular ions, but with the added benefit of a simple, reliable trapping.

We will discuss our implementation of a recent proposal for the production of ultracold molecular ions [2], the experimental architecture's applicability as a scalable quantum computation platform [3,4], and the surprising results of a recent measurement of chemistry between ultracold atoms and ions in the system [5].

1. R. V. Krems, W. C. Stwalley, and B. Friedrich, eds., Cold Molecules (CRC Press, 2009).
2. E.R. Hudson, "Method for the production of ultracold molecular ions", Phys. Rev. A 79 032716(2010).
3. A. Andre et al., "A coherent all-electrical interface between polar molecules and mesoscopic superconducting resonators", Nature Phys. 2, 636 (2006).
4. D.I Schuster et al., "Cavity QED in a molecular ion trap", Phys. Rev. A 83, 012311 (2011).
5. W.G. Rellergert et al., "Chemical reaction of ultracold atoms and ions in a hybrid trap", arXiv:1104.5478 (2011).