Single molecular ions: Molecular physics at the most fundamental level

Physics Colloquium

The past two decades there has been a tremendous progress in experiments with single trapped atomic ions. Presently, e.g., the most precise optical frequencies have been measured with single atomic ions, and the furthest advances towards the realization of practical quantum computing are based on single ionic species. Experiments with single molecular ions have likewise made impressive advances the past years, e.g., with the demonstration of single ion reaction experiments, and with the development of internal state prepa-ration methods suitable for single ions. Besides reviewing some single molecular ion experiments carried out at Aarhus University, I will discuss the perspectives for the next generation of single mole-cular ion experiments including femto-second-laser internal state manipulation and ultracold ion chemistry, i.e. chemistry in the microkelvin regime.

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