22 May 2025 Thu 3 pm

Due to their complex internal structures and strong long-range interactions, diatomic molecules are expected to be a promising system for quantum simulations/computations. Achieving ultracold temperature of diatomic molecules is one of the pre-requested key steps for using them as a quantum resource. One way to cool the molecules is laser-cooling, the workhorse technique to cool the atoms. Despite the complicated internal structures of molecules, laser-cooling and magneto-optical traps of molecules have been demonstrated for several species including SrF, CaF, YO, and BaF reaching temperatures down to 5 uK. Magnesium monofluoride (MgF) is a promising choice for investigating various quantum phenomena among diatomic molecular species due to its bosonic and fermionic isotopologues and large electric dipole moment. Additionally, MgF's strong UV transition, light mass, and highly diagonal Franck-Condon factors make it a suitable candidate for efficient laser cooling.

Here, we share the progress of our MgF experiment at Korea University towards trapping the molecules in a magneto-optical trap, the very beginning step to prepare ultracold samples of the molecules. Also, a way to generate entanglement between molecules regardless of their positions by coupling them through a microwave cavity will be briefly discussed at the last part of the talk.

< Previous

Next >