Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Studies of molecules at very low temperatures open unlimited possibilities, in terms of not only basic natural sciences, but also practical applications.  For example, understanding of reactions at low temperatures would introduce a new field of chemistry and astronomy, as many reactions must have proceeded frequently in interstellar space at temperatures below 10 K, where a significant enhancement of reaction cross sections compared with higher temperature molecules has been predicted for some systems.  Application of cold molecules to quantum computing is one of the best outcomes of research on cold molecules, as people are eagerly seeking systems having many internal states that are externally controllable for long times.  Despite the importance of molecules at very low temperatures, our understanding of their physical and chemical properties is still very primitive because of the difficulty in making free cold molecules.   In this project, we will construct an apparatus for decelerating molecules down to 1 millikelvin, and subsequently trapping and detecting the ultra-cold molecules in order to explore their physical and chemical properties by high-resolution spectroscopy.  The apparatus includes a vacuum chamber, pumps, an optical cavity and a detecting unit, which will make molecules whose translational energy is less than 1 millikelvin.  If one could trap molecules in the gas phase at these ultra-cold temperatures, new phenomena of very cold molecules should be observed through ultra-high resolution spectroscopy, such as anomalous reaction cross sections or superfluidity, which offer a completely new field of research in physical chemistry. It should also enable us to control and manipulate molecules coherently, which leads to a practical application of cold molecules to quantum computation. The requested funding would enable construction of this tool at UBC, and would make UBC a leading center in the world for the study of cold molecules.