A research center bridging the gap between chemistry and physics, between experimentalists and theorists, and combining the “ultra-fast” with the “ultra-cold.”
The Center has three major objectives: (i) To control chemical reactions within and between ultra-cold molecules using both ultra-fast laser pulses and stationary electric and magnetic fields. This integration will lay the foundations of the new research field of “ultra-cold coherent chemistry.” (ii) To create and study a new phase of condensed matter consisting of ordered ensembles of ultra-cold molecules, called molecular “optical lattices.” Among other applications, such lattices would aid in the development of “quantum computers.” (iii) To explore an entirely new chemical regime of molecular gases confined by laser fields to one and two dimensions, and obtain insights into the cooperative effects exhibited by ensembles of ultra-cold molecules in confined geometries with extremely large wave-lengths.