Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Nature. 2024 Apr;628(8007):282-286. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07199-1. Epub 2024 Apr 3.
Polyatomic molecules have rich structural features that make them uniquely suited to applications in quantum information science, quantum simulation, ultracold chemistry and searches for physics beyond the standard model. However, a key challenge is fully controlling both the internal quantum state and the motional degrees of freedom of the molecules. Here we demonstrate the creation of an optical tweezer array of individual polyatomic molecules, CaOH, with quantum control of their internal quantum state. The complex quantum structure of CaOH results in a non-trivial dependence of the molecules' behaviour on the tweezer light wavelength. We control this interaction and directly and non-destructively image individual molecules in the tweezer array with a fidelity greater than 90%. The molecules are manipulated at the single internal quantum state level, thus demonstrating coherent state control in a tweezer array. The platform demonstrated here will enable a variety of experiments using individual polyatomic molecules with arbitrary spatial arrangement.
多原子分子具有丰富的结构特征,使它们非常适合应用于量子信息科学、量子模拟、超冷化学和超出标准模型的物理搜索。然而,一个关键的挑战是完全控制分子的内部量子态和运动自由度。在这里,我们展示了单个多原子分子 CaOH 的光镊阵列的创建,以及对其内部量子态的量子控制。CaOH 的复杂量子结构导致分子的行为对镊子光波长有重要的依赖性。我们控制这种相互作用,并以大于 90%的保真度直接和非破坏性地对镊子阵列中的单个分子进行成像。分子在单个内部量子态水平上被操纵,从而在镊子阵列中展示了相干态控制。这里展示的平台将能够使用具有任意空间排列的单个多原子分子进行各种实验。