Over the past years, the development of experimental techniques for the coherent manipulation and control of isolated quantum systems has made impressive progress. Such 'quantum-logic' methods are also highly attractive in a chemical context in view of unravelling and controlling the quantum dynamics of molecular collisions and chemical reactions. Quantum technologies have the potential to transform the way chemical dynamics are investigated - by providing highly sensitive methods for state readout and spectroscopy, by opening up new pathways for the quantum-state preparation of molecules and by enabling an improved control of their microscopic behavior on the single-particle level. However, for complex quantum systems like molecules, these techniques are still in their infancy and their considerable potential remains to be unlocked. The aim of the present research program supported by an Advanced Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation is to merge the fields of quantum science and chemical dynamics by advancing quantum technologies to polyatomic molecular ions and by applying them to the study of ion-molecule collisions and chemical reactions. In this article, we review the salient experimental methods as well as prospects and challenges in the development of molecular quantum technologies and their applications to chemistry.
Over the past years, the development of experimental techniques for the coherent manipulation and control of isolated quantum systems has made impressive progress. Such 'quantum-logic' methods are also highly attractive in a chemical context in view of unravelling and controlling the quantum dynamics of molecular collisions and chemical reactions. Quantum technologies have the potential to transform the way chemical dynamics are investigated - by providing highly sensitive methods for state readout and spectroscopy, by opening up new pathways for the quantum-state preparation of molecules and by enabling an improved control of their microscopic behavior on the single-particle level. However, for complex quantum systems like molecules, these techniques are still in their infancy and their considerable potential remains to be unlocked. The aim of the present research program supported by an Advanced Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation is to merge the fields of quantum science and chemical dynamics by advancing quantum technologies to polyatomic molecular ions and by applying them to the study of ion-molecule collisions and chemical reactions. In this article, we review the salient experimental methods as well as prospects and challenges in the development of molecular quantum technologies and their applications to chemistry.
Quantum-logic techniques for state preparation, manipulation, and non-destructive interrogation are increasingly being adopted for experiments on single molecular ions confined in traps. The ability to control molecular ions on the quantum level via a co-trapped atomic ion offers intriguing possibilities for new experiments in the realms of precision spectroscopy, quantum information processing, cold chemistry, and quantum technologies with molecules. The present article gives an overview of the basic experimental methods, recent developments and prospects in this field.
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in research on cold and controlled molecular collisions, both in theory and in experiment. The advent of techniques to prepare cold and ultracold molecules and ions, to store them in optical lattices or in charged quasicristalline structures, and to use them in crossed or merged beam experiments have opened many new possibilities to study the most fundamental aspects of molecular interactions. At the same time, theoretical work has made progress in tackling these problems and accurately describing quantum effects in complex systems, and in proposing viable options to control chemical reactions at ultralow energies. Through tutorials on both the theoretical and experimental aspects of research in cold and ultracold molecular collisions, this book provides advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and researchers with the foundations needed to understand this exciting field.
We review our recent experimental results on the non-destructive quantum-state detection and spectroscopy of single trapped molecules. At the heart of our scheme, a single atomic ion is used to probe the state of a single molecular ion without destroying the molecule or even perturbing its quantum state. This method opens up perspectives for new research directions in precision spectroscopy, for the development of new frequency standards, for tests of fundamental physical concepts and for the precise study of chemical reactions and molecular collisions with full control over the molecular quantum state.
Quantum computing offers the promise of revolutionizing quantum chemistry by enabling the solution of chemical problems for substantially less computational cost. While most demonstrations of quantum computation to date have focused on resolving the energies of the electronic ground states of small molecules, the field of quantum chemistry is far broader than ground-state chemistry; equally important to practicing chemists are chemical reaction dynamics and reaction mechanism prediction. Here, we review progress toward and the potential of quantum computation for understanding quantum chemistry beyond the ground state, including for reaction mechanisms, reaction dynamics, and finite-temperature quantum chemistry. We discuss algorithmic and other considerations these applications share, as well as differences that make them unique. We also highlight the potential speedups these applications may realize and challenges they may face. We hope that this discussion stimulates further research into how quantum computation may better inform experimental chemistry in the future.
I n this Physical Chemistry of Quantum Information Science (QIS) Virtual Special Issue, we delve into the research areas that have attracted significant attention and promise to reshape the landscape of quantum information science with a focus on molecular and materials systems.The topics explored here encompass theoretical and computational pursuits as well as cutting-edge experiments.The issue was inspired by recent innovations and discoveries in this active research field.Control of molecular quantum states has improved dramatically thanks to advances in producing cold molecular beams and trapped gas samples. 1 Manipulation of individual molecules in optical tweezers and of many-body interactions in various optical lattice configurations has opened exciting possibilities. 2 Likewise, control of quantum states has been achieved or proposed in a variety of materials, from defects in bulk materials to thin films and quantum dots and even large molecules such as dyes and fullerenes.The breadth of quantum technologies to which these molecular and materials platforms have the potential to cater is vast, including areas of sensing, computing, quantum optics, and beyond.Specifically, quantum computing may be poised to augment classical computations and offer solutions for challenging chemical problems, while quantum sensors can exhibit unprecedented sensitivity.These possibilities go beyond what is attainable with today's limited number of materials platforms, illustrating the central role of chemistry in the field of QIS.In this Virtual Special Issue, we explore quantum information science where molecular systems take center stage.We investigate the topic of quantum algorithms tailored for quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and statistical mechanics.This includes a quest to enhance the accuracy of classical computations for difficult chemistry problems involving strongly correlated systems in the works by A.
We describe the state of the art in preparing, manipulating and detecting coherent molecular matter. We focus on experimental methods for handling the quantum motion of compound systems from diatomic molecules to clusters or biomolecules.Molecular quantum optics offers many challenges and innovative prospects: already the combination of two atoms into one molecule takes several well-established methods from atomic physics, such as for instance laser cooling, to their limits. The enormous internal complexity that arises when hundreds or thousands of atoms are bound in a single organic molecule, cluster or nanocrystal provides a richness that can only be tackled by combining methods from atomic physics, chemistry, cluster physics, nanotechnology and the life sciences.We review various molecular beam sources and their suitability for matter-wave experiments. We discuss numerous molecular detection schemes and give an overview over diffraction and interference experiments that have already been performed with molecules or clusters.Applications of de Broglie studies with composite systems range from fundamental tests of physics up to quantum-enhanced metrology in physical chemistry, biophysics and the surface sciences.Nanoparticle quantum optics is a growing field, which will intrigue researchers still for many years to come. This review can, therefore, only be a snapshot of a very dynamical process.