Prof. Sebastian Will, Department of Physics, Columbia University of New York Creating and Exploring Bose-Einstein Condensates of Dipolar Molecules
Sebastian Will, Columbia University, Department of Physics, New York, NY, USA
Recently, we have realized the first BEC of dipolar molecules [1]. We evaporatively
cool a gas of sodium-cesium molecules to below 10 nanokelvin, deep in the quantum
degenerate regime. The BECs live for several seconds. This dramatic improvement
over previous molecular cooling efforts is enabled by collisional shielding via
microwave dressing, suppressing inelastic losses by four orders of magnitude [2].
Microwave dressing also provides an exceptional level of tunability of dipole-dipole
interactions, opening the door to novel phases of matter in molecular quantum liquids.
Most recently, we have observed self-bound droplets in a gas of strongly dipolar
molecules [3].
In this talk, I will describe our experimental approach, discuss recent results, and give
an outlook on novel opportunities enabled by molecular BECs for many-body
quantum physics, quantum simulation, and quantum computing. I will also briefly
highlight our broader efforts in quantum, including recent advances on single atom
trapping in metasurface optical tweezer arrays [4].
Figure: Formation of self-bound droplets in a BEC of dipolar NaCs molecules
References:
[1]
Bigagli, Yuan, Zhang, et al., Observation of Bose-Einstein condensation of
dipolar molecules, Nature 631, 289-293 (2024)
[2]
Yuan, Zhang, et al., Extreme loss suppression and wide tunability of dipolar
interactions in an ultracold molecular gas, arXiv:2505.08773 (2025)
[3]
Zhang, Yuan, et al., Observation of self-bound droplets of ultracold dipolar
molecules, arXiv:2507.15208 (2025)
[4]
Holman, Xu, et al., Trapping of single atoms in metasurface optical tweezer
arrays, arXiv:2411.05321 (2024) (in print)
Bio:
Sebastian Will is an Associate Professor of Physics at Columbia University. His
research focuses on ultracold atoms and molecules for applications in fundamental
science, quantum simulation, quantum computing, and quantum networking. He is a
recipient of the Columbia RISE Award, the NSF Career Award, and a Sloan Fellowship.
His research is supported by the NSF, AFOSR, ARO, ONR, DOE, and the Gordon and
Betty Moore Foundation.
