Trapping molecules on chips

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in trapping, manipulating, and detecting neutral molecules on microchips, enabling precise control for quantum experiments and molecular studies.

Contribution

It summarizes techniques for loading, trapping, decelerating, and detecting molecules on chips, highlighting recent experimental progress.

Findings

Molecules can be loaded directly from supersonic beams onto chips.

Microscopic traps can be moved smoothly over the chip surface.

Molecules can be decelerated, pumped into quantum states, and detected with spatial imaging.

Abstract

In the last years, it was demonstrated that neutral molecules can be loaded on a microchip directly from a supersonic beam. The molecules are confined in microscopic traps that can be moved smoothly over the surface of the chip. Once the molecules are trapped, they can be decelerated to a standstill, for instance, or pumped into selected quantum states by laser light or microwaves. Molecules are detected on the chip by time-resolved spatial imaging, which allows for the study of the distribution in the phase space of the molecular ensemble.