Quantum Science and Technologies using Ultracold Molecules

Ultracold molecules have a wide range of applications in quantum science and technologies spanning from fundamental physics to quantum computing and quantum chemistry, and this has sparked great interest in laser cooling of molecules. Progress in laser cooling of molecules has led to molecular magneto-optical traps and cooling these molecules to temperatures of a few microkelvin. In this talk, I will present how we build an apparatus that uses ultracold molecules to make extremely precise measurements of the electron's shape. Such table-top experiments will enable us to probe energies equal to, or even above, those reached by gigantic particle accelerators such as Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

I will then highlight the potential use of ultracold molecules to study chemical reactions in a completely new regime, where the wave nature of molecules plays an all-important role in chemical reactions. Single molecules confined in optical tweezer traps provide an ideal platform where we can explore the dynamics of atomic rearrangement during chemical reactions. These experiments will help us understand chemical processes at the most fundamental level, and thus teach us how to control chemical reactions.