A scalable two-dimensional moving electric lattice on a chip for polar molecules

Abstract

Cold atoms and polar molecules have long been candidates for the implementation of quantum information processing. Although many schemes of two-dimensional (2D) moving optical or magnetic lattices have been proposed for atomic shift register, little work has been done on 2D electric lattice for molecular shift register, mainly due to the complexity of molecular energy level structures as well as the challenge to build micropotentials that are scalable, smoothly moving and accurately controlled. Here we present a design of chip-based 2D electric lattice for molecular shift register capable of scaling and controlling, which mainly consists of arrays of equidistant gold electrodes for generating a moving electric lattice. Our theoretical analysis and trajectory calculations, based on the polar molecules ammonia-D3 (ND3) and methylidyne radical (CH), show explicitly that the 2D lattice is able to directly slow down arrays of polar molecules from supersonic speeds to a standstill over a distance of a few centimeters, and then hold them for a certain time or shift them back in a smooth manner. Besides, it also enables decelerating and trapping of the two molecular species simultaneously, which contributes to the understanding towards new phenomena such as novel quantum mechanical collisions and cold chemistry.