Chen Seminar Abstract May 4

Optically Synthetic Quantum Matter: from new molecules to novel condensates

Using light to probe the properties of matter and to manipulate matter through a variety of light-matter interactions underlie much of what we study in atomic, molecular and optical physics and other branches of photonic science and technologies. In recent years, it has been realized that light can also be used to help “synthesize” new states of matter that may be otherwise difficult to create. In this talk, I will discuss two experimental projects we have been working on at Purdue University along this line, to create and study new types of cold atomic and molecular quantum matter: 1) using light induced “chemical reaction” between cold Li and Rb atoms to form photoassociated cold LiRb molecules in the excited as well as ground state, a new member of bi-alkali cold polar molecules that may be promising for potential applications in quantum control and quantum computing; 2) using a pair of counter propagating Raman laser beams to induce “synthetic” gauge fields and spin-orbit-coupling (SOC) for ultracold Rb atoms, to form novel types of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in spin-momentum entangled states that we probe by dynamical excitation as well as photoassociation experiments. Such condensates are also considered a promising platform to realize novel topological quantum matter.