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Quantum computation and quantum simulation with ultracold molecules

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Abstract

Ultracold molecules confined in optical lattices or tweezer traps can be used to process quantum information and simulate the behaviour of many-body quantum systems. Molecules offer several advantages for these applications. They have a large set of stable states with strong transitions between them and long coherence times. Molecules can be prepared in a chosen state with high fidelity, and the state populations can be measured efficiently. Control over their long-range dipole–dipole interactions can enable the entanglement of pairs of molecules, generating interesting and technologically useful many-body states. This Review covers the advances made so far in the field of quantum simulation and computation with ultracold molecules and the challenges still to overcome.

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Fig. 1: Rotational energies and dipole moments of a simple diatomic molecule in an electric field.
Fig. 2: Quantum simulation with ultracold polar molecules.
Fig. 3: Entangling gate between CaF molecules using dipolar spin-exchange interactions.
Fig. 4: Future research directions.

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  • 13 June 2024

    In the version of the article initially published, refs. 34–37 were missing DOIs which have now been added to the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant nos. EP/P01058X/1, EP/P008275/1, EP/V011499/1 and EP/W00299X/1), a Frontier Research Grant from UK Research and Innovation (grant no. EP/X023354/1), the Robert A. Welch Foundation (grant no. C-1872), the National Science Foundation (grant nos. PHY1848304 and CMMI-2037545), the Office of Naval Research (grant nos. N00014-20-1-2695 and N00014-12-1-2665), the W.M. Keck Foundation (grant no. 995764), the Department of Energy (grant no. DE-SC0024301), the Royal Society and Durham University.

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  1. Department of Physics and Joint Quantum Centre Durham-Newcastle, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Simon L. Cornish

  2. Centre for Cold Matter, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Michael R. Tarbutt

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Kaden R. A. Hazzard

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Cornish, S.L., Tarbutt, M.R. & Hazzard, K.R.A. Quantum computation and quantum simulation with ultracold molecules. Nat. Phys. 20, 730–740 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02453-9

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