Functionalizing aromatic compounds with optical cycling centres

Guo-Zhu Zhu; Debayan Mitra; Benjamin L Augenbraun; Claire E Dickerson; Michael J Frim; Guanming Lao; Zack D Lasner; Anastassia N Alexandrova; Wesley C Campbell; Justin R Caram; John M Doyle; Eric R Hudson

doi:10.1038/s41557-022-00998-x

Functionalizing aromatic compounds with optical cycling centres

Nat Chem. 2022 Sep;14(9):995-999. doi: 10.1038/s41557-022-00998-x. Epub 2022 Jul 25.

Authors

Guo-Zhu Zhu¹, Debayan Mitra^{2

3

4}, Benjamin L Augenbraun^{2

3}, Claire E Dickerson⁵, Michael J Frim³, Guanming Lao¹, Zack D Lasner^{2

3}, Anastassia N Alexandrova^{5

6}, Wesley C Campbell^{1

6

7}, Justin R Caram^{5

6}, John M Doyle^{2

3}, Eric R Hudson^{8

9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³ Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁷ Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. hudson@physics.ucla.edu.
⁹ Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. hudson@physics.ucla.edu.
¹⁰ Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. hudson@physics.ucla.edu.

PMID: 35879444
DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-00998-x

Abstract

Molecular design principles provide guidelines for augmenting a molecule with a smaller group of atoms to realize a desired property or function. We demonstrate that these concepts can be used to create an optical cycling centre, the Ca(I)-O unit, that can be attached to a number of aromatic ligands, enabling the scattering of many photons from the resulting molecules without changing the molecular vibrational state. Such capability plays a central role in quantum state preparation and measurement, as well as laser cooling and trapping, and is therefore a prerequisite for many quantum science and technology applications. We provide further molecular design principles that indicate the ability to optimize and expand this work to an even broader class of molecules. This represents a great step towards a quantum functional group, which may serve as a generic qubit moiety that can be attached to a wide range of molecular structures and surfaces.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Lasers
Light*
Molecular Structure
Organic Chemicals
Photons*

Substances

Organic Chemicals