We have developed a novel experimental technique for direct production of cold molecules using a combination of techniques from atomic optical and molecular physics and physical chemistry. The ability to produce samples of cold molecules has application in a broad spectrum of technical fields high-resolution spectroscopy, remote sensing, quantum computing, materials simulation, and understanding fundamental chemical dynamics. Researchers around the world are currently exploring many techniques for producing samples of cold molecules, but to-date these attempts have offered only limited success achieving milli-Kelvin temperatures with low densities. This Laboratory Directed Research and Development project is to develops a new experimental technique for producing micro-Kelvin temperature molecules via collisions with laser cooled samples of trapped atoms. The technique relies on near mass degenerate collisions between the molecule of interest and a laser cooled (micro-Kelvin) atom. A subset of collisions will transfer all (nearly all) of the kinetic energy from the 'hot' molecule, cooling the molecule at the expense of heating the atom. Further collisions with the remaining laser cooled atoms will thermally equilibrate the molecules to the micro-Kelvin temperature of the laser-cooled atoms.

This book brings together, for the first time, the results of recent research in areas ranging from the chemistry of cold interstellar clouds (10-20 K), through laboratory studies of the spectroscopy and kinetics of ions, radicals and molecules, to studies of molecules in liquid helium droplets, to attempts to create molecular (as distinct from atomic) Bose-Einstein condensates.

The First Book on Ultracold Molecules Cold molecules offer intriguing properties on which new operational principles can be based (e.g., quantum computing) or that may allow researchers to study a qualitatively new behavior of matter (e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates structured by the electric dipole interaction). This interdisciplinary book discusses novel methods to create and confine molecules at temperatures near absolute zero (1 microKelvin to 1 Kelvin) and surveys the research done with and on cold molecules to date. It is evident that this research has irreversibly changed atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information science. Its impact on condensed-matter physics, astrophysics, and physical chemistry is becoming apparent as well. This monograph provides seasoned researchers as well as students entering the field with a valuable companion, one which, in addition, will help to foster their identity within their institutions and the physics and chemistry communities at large. Features a foreword by Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach

The First Book on Ultracold MoleculesCold molecules offer intriguing properties on which new operational principles can be based (e.g., quantum computing) or that may allow researchers to study a qualitatively new behavior of matter (e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates structured by the electric dipole interaction). This interdisciplinary book discusse

The advent of laser cooling of atoms led to the discovery of ultra-cold matter, with temperatures below liquid Helium, which displays a variety of new physical phenomena. Physics of Ultra-Cold Matter gives an overview of this recent area of science, with a discussion of its main results and a description of its theoretical concepts and methods. Ultra-cold matter can be considered in three distinct phases: ultra-cold gas, Bose Einstein condensate, and Rydberg plasmas. This book gives an integrated view of this new area of science at the frontier between atomic physics, condensed matter, and plasma physics. It describes these three distinct phases while exploring the differences, as well as the sometimes unexpected similarities, of their respective theoretical methods. This book is an informative guide for researchers, and the benefits are a result from an integrated view of a very broad area of research, which is limited in previous books about this subject. The main unifying tool explored in this book is the wave kinetic theory based on Wigner functions. Other theoretical approaches, eventually more familiar to the reader, are also given for extension and comparison. The book considers laser cooling techniques, atom-atom interactions, and focuses on the elementary excitations and collective oscillations in atomic clouds, Bose-Einstein condensates, and Rydberg plasmas. Linear and nonlinear processes are considered, including Landau damping, soliton excitation and vortices. Atomic interferometers and quantum coherence are also included.

A tutorial for calculating the response of molecules to electric and magnetic fields with examples from research in ultracold physics, controlled chemistry, and molecular collisions in fields Molecules in Electromagnetic Fields is intended to serve as a tutorial for students beginning research, theoretical or experimental, in an area related to molecular physics. The author—a noted expert in the field—offers a systematic discussion of the effects of static and dynamic electric and magnetic fields on the rotational, fine, and hyperfine structure of molecules. The book illustrates how the concepts developed in ultracold physics research have led to what may be the beginning of controlled chemistry in the fully quantum regime. Offering a glimpse of the current state of the art research, this book suggests future research avenues for ultracold chemistry. The text describes theories needed to understand recent exciting developments in the research on trapping molecules, guiding molecular beams, laser control of molecular rotations, and external field control of microscopic intermolecular interactions. In addition, the author presents the description of scattering theory for molecules in electromagnetic fields and offers practical advice for students working on various aspects of molecular interactions. This important text: Offers information on theeffects of electromagnetic fields on the structure of molecular energy levels Includes thorough descriptions of the most useful theories for ultracold molecule researchers Presents a wealth of illustrative examples from recent experimental and theoretical work Contains helpful exercises that help to reinforce concepts presented throughout text Written for senior undergraduate and graduate students, professors, researchers, physicists, physical chemists, and chemical physicists, Molecules in Electromagnetic Fields is an interdisciplinary text describing theories and examples from the core of contemporary molecular physics.

This book summarizes several years of research carried out by a collaboration of many groups on ultrafast photochemical reactions. It emphasizes the analysis and characterization of the nuclear dynamics within molecular systems in various environments induced by optical excitations and the study of the resulting molecular dynamics by further interaction with an optical field.

There are probably few people who do not dream of the good old times, when do ing science often meant fascination, excitement, even adventure. In our time, do ing science involves often technology and, perhaps, even business. But there are still niches where curiosity and fascination have their place. The subject of this book, technological as its title may sound, is one of the fortunate examples. It will report on lasers generating the coldest places in the Universe, and on table top laser microtools which can produce a heat "inferno" as it prevails in the interior of the Sun, or simulate, for specific plant cells, microgravity of the space around our plan et Earth. There will be some real surprises for the reader. The applications range from basic studies of the driving forces of cell division (and thus life) via genetic modification of cells (for example, for plant breeding) to medical applications such as blood cell analysis and finally in vitro fertilization. What are these instruments: laser microbeams and optical tweezers? Both are lasers coupled with a fluorescence microscope. The laser microbeam uses a pulsed ultraviolet laser. Light is focused, as well as possible, in space and time, in order to obtain extremely high light intensities - high enough to generate, for a very short instant, extremely hot spots which can be used to cut, fuse or perforate biological material.

Polish Quantum Chemistry from Kolos to Now, Volume 87 provides a survey of contributions coauthored by Polish scientists working in Poland, and in European and American Universities. Sections in this release include Review: From the Kolos-Wolniewicz calculations to the quantum-electrodynamic treatment of the hydrogen molecule: competition between theory and experiment, Review: How to make symmetry-adapted perturbation theory more accurate, Review: Advanced models of coupled cluster theory for the ground, excited and ionized states, Can orbital basis sets compete with explicitly correlated ones for few-electron systems?, Converging high-level equation-of-motion coupled-cluster energetics with the help of Monte Carlo and selected configuration interaction, and more. Additional chapters cover Coupled cluster downfolding techniques: a review of existing applications in classical and quantum computing for chemical systems, Exploring the attosecond laser-driven electron dynamics in the hydrogen molecule with different real-time time-dependent configuration interaction approaches, Molecular systems in spatial confinement: variation of linear and nonlinear electrical response of molecules in the bond dissociation processes, and much more. Updates on the latest developments and performance of SAPT Presents key theory and applications of high precision calculations for few electron systems Includes discussions on the development and applications of the DFT approach

Ever since the invention of the cesium atomic clock in 1955, quantum frequency standards have seen considerable development over the decades, as a representative of quantum precision measurement. The progress in frequency measurements achieved in the past allowed one to perform quantum precision measurements of other physical and technical quantities with unprecedented precision, whenever they could be traced back to a frequency measurement. Using atomic transitions as frequency reference, quantum frequency standards are far less susceptible to external perturbations, and the identity of microscopic particles allows easy replication of a quantum standard with the same frequency. With laser cooling and trapping, cold atomic ensembles eliminate Doppler shift broadening, and have become the go-to quantum reference when precision and new physics are pursued. The advancement of laser cooling and cold atom physics, in addition to novel physical matter states such as Bose-Einstein Condensation, give rise to new experimental techniques in quantum precision measurement, especially quantum frequency standards, such as cesium fountain clocks dictating the SI second, as well as optical lattice clocks and single-ion optical clocks pushing the frontier of quantum metrology. Other areas of quantum metrology, such as gravitometers and magnetometers, also benefit greatly from cold atoms. For practical applications, quantum frequency standards are usually required to be compact and portable, and thermal atoms in the form of atomic beams or vapor cells are utilized. Commercially available quantum frequency standards such as cesium beam clocks or rubidium clocks have become the cornerstone of navigation and timekeeping. Compact optical clocks based on various laser spectroscopic techniques have also been developed. As researchers strive to break through the limits of accurate quantum measurement and atomic temperature, new fields such as precise measurement, quantum computing and quantum simulation based on cold atoms are further opened up, and challenges still exist to explore new physical phenomena in the field of cold atoms. In honor of Prof. Yiqiu Wang on the occasion of his 90th birthday, the main goal of this Research Topic is to provide a platform to exhibit the recent achievements and reveal the future challenges in quantum precision measurement, as well as studies of cold atom physics with quantum metrology, closely related to the long-term scientific research areas of Prof. Yiqiu Wang. Both Original Research and Review articles are encouraged. Topics of interest to this collection include, but are not limited to: • Quantum precision measurements • Microwave atomic clocks and their applications • Optical frequency standards, laser spectroscopy, and their applications • Quantum measurement based on cold atom • Quantum computation and quantum simulation based on cold atom