Wes Campbell Optical cycling of aromatic molecules for quantum state detection

An optical cycling transition in a molecule is an electronic transition in which the upper state preferentially decays back to the original rovibrational state (or states) from which it was excited upon spontaneous emission. Because the laser-induced fluorescence can be repeated many times with a nearly deterministic final internal state, these transitions are useful for laser-driven applications such as Doppler cooling and quantum state preparation and detection of qubits. I will discuss recent progress toward endowing molecules as large as polycyclic arenes with optical cycling centers. Frequency selectivity allows us to use the laser-induced fluorescence to detect conformation changes, a prerequisite for using those degrees of freedom for quantum information applications the single molecule level.