Quantum state manipulation and cooling of ultracold molecules

Abstract

In recent years, an increasingly large variety of molecular species have been successfully cooled to low energies, and innovative techniques continue to emerge to reach ever more precise control of molecular motion. In this Review, we focus on two widely employed cooling techniques that have brought molecular gases into the quantum regime: association of ultracold atoms into quantum gases of molecules and direct laser cooling of molecules. These advances have brought into reality the capability to prepare and manipulate both internal and external states of molecules on a quantum mechanical level, opening the field of cold molecules to a wide range of scientific explorations.