3 pm in Howey Physics Lecture Room 5
Georgia Tech School of Physics Colloquium
Ken Brown
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology
"Quantum Information and Atomic Physics for Chemistry"
Atomic physics based quantum information devices have a number of
applications for chemistry. In the long term, a quantum computer could
efficiently calculate exact molecular energies. In the near term,
controlled laser-cooled ions can be used to monitor molecular
reactions using techniques from ion trap quantum computation.
This presentation will focus on our experimental effort to use
trapped, laser-cooled ions to study molecular reactions. We are currently pursuing the detection of single molecular ion
spectra by sympathetic heating spectroscopy. Sympathetic heating
spectroscopy uses the coupled motion of two trapped ions to measure
the spectra of one ion by observing changes in the fluorescence of the
other ion. I will present an experimental demonstration of the
technique using two isotopes of Ca. Limits of the method and potential
applications for cold molecular ion spectroscopy will be discussed.
I will also briefly describe our theoretical work towards overcoming
the current experimental challenges of simulating a physical system on
a quantum computer. The resource costs of quantum simulation using an
ion-trap quantum computer and methods for minimizing control errors
will be emphasized.
