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Abstract
Polar molecules, due to their intrinsic electric dipole moment and their controllable complexity, are a powerful platform for precision measurement searches for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) and, potentially, for quantum simulation/computation. This has led to many experimental efforts to cool and control molecules at the single quantum state level, including with CaF. I will present work demonstrating entanglement and iSWAP operations with individual CaF molecules in optical tweezers. Polyatomic molecules have attracted new focus as potential novel quantum resources with distinct advantages - and challenges - compared to both atoms and diatomic molecules. I will discuss features of polyatomic molecules that can be used in quantum simulation/computation, the search for BSM physics, and ultracold chemistry. I will discuss our results on the laser cooling of polyatomic molecules into the ultracold regime, including the laser cooling of the polyatomic molecules SrOH, YbOH, CaOH, CaNH2, and CaOCH3. Finally, if time permits, I will discuss recent measurements on spin precession in a metastable vibrational bending mode of CaOH, useful for future experiments searching for the electron electric dipole moment, a probe for BSM physics in the >10 TeV range.
Short Biography
John Doyle, Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics, Harvard University, grew up in the U.S. and received his bachelor’s (1986) and Ph.D. (1991) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). After being a postdoc at M.I.T., he joined Harvard University as an assistant professor of physics in 1993. John Doyle's research centers on using cold molecules for science including particle physics, collisions, and quantum information. Starting with the development a new technique for producing heavy, polar radical molecules in an intense cold beam, he launched with collaborators searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) through probing for the electron electric dipole moment. His group is a pioneer in the cooling and trapping of molecules, studying collisional processes in atoms and molecules and developing tools to achieve full quantum control over increasingly complex molecular systems. They pioneered the laser cooling of polyatomic molecules and are working to realize new techniques to trap and study interactions in polyatomic molecules. John Doyle is the co-Director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, director of the Japanese Undergraduate Research Exchange Program (JUREP), and he co-founded the Harvard/MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, where for twenty years he was co-director. He has published papers in the areas of ultracold atoms, molecules, spectroscopy, precision measurement, ultracold neutrons, respiratory disease transmission mitigation, and dark matter detection and supervised the PhDs of over thirty students. He is a Humboldt, Fulbright, and American Physical Society (APS) Fellow, and winner of the APS Broida prize. He was elected president of the APS for 2025, which will be designated as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. He currently serves as president-elect of the APS.
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