Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Molecules at very cold temperatures are expected to behave quite differently from those at high temperatures. For example, a significant enhancement of reaction cross section is expected for some systems below 10 K because of the tunneling process, resonance effect and its large thermal deBroglie length. However, little is known about the intrinsic properties of cold molecules because of the difficulty in making free cold molecules. My research project explores the physical and chemical properties of molecules at very low temperatures by laser spectroscopy, and consists of four topics. 1) Spectroscopic investigation of molecules in quantum condensed phases 2) Development of techniques for making free cold molecules 3) Coherent control of cold molecules by laser fields and applications to quantum computing 4) Astronomical observation of molecules in interstellar space and related laboratory spectroscopy Through the above studies, new phenomena intrinsic to cold molecules can be observed such as quantum tunneling effects and the wave nature of molecules. If one could achieve trapping of molecules at ultra-cold temperatures, it would be possible to control the number of molecules coherently, which would lead to a new methodology to manipulate molecules through quantum mechanics. In addition, there are many other applications of cold molecules such as proving the nonzero electric dipole moment of an electron, and observation of small energy differences in chiral molecules, etc. Studies of molecules at very low temperatures open unlimited possibilities, in terms of not only basic natural sciences, but also practical applications, which offer a completely new field of research in physical chemistry.