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Long-lived entanglement of molecules in magic-wavelength optical tweezers

Abstract Realizing quantum control and entanglement of particles is crucial for advancing both quantum technologies and fundamental science. Substantial developments in this domain have been achieved in a variety of systems1–5. In this context, ultracold polar molecules offer new and unique opportunities because of their more complex internal structure associated with vibration and rotation, coupled with the existence of long-range interactions6,7. However, the same properties make molecules highly sensitive to their environment8–10, affecting their coherence and utility in some applications. Here we show that by engineering an exceptionally controlled environment using rotationally magic11,12 optical tweezers, we can achieve long-lived entanglement between pairs of molecules using detectable hertz-scale interactions. We prepare two-molecule Bell states with fidelity $$0.92{4}_{-0.016}^{+0.013}$$ 0.92 4 − 0.016 + 0.013 , limited by detectable leakage errors. When correcting for these errors, the fidelity is $$0.97{6}_{-0.016}^{+0.014}$$ 0.97 6 − 0.016 + 0.014 . We show that the second-scale entanglement lifetimes are limited solely by these errors, providing opportunities for research in quantum-enhanced metrology7,13, ultracold chemistry14 and the use of rotational states in quantum simulation, quantum computation and as quantum memories. The extension of precise quantum control to complex molecular systems will enable their additional degrees of freedom to be exploited across many domains of quantum science15–17.

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Bilayer nanographene reveals halide permeation through a benzene hole

Abstract Graphene is a single-layered sp 2-hybridized carbon allotrope, which is impermeable to all atomic entities other than hydrogen1,2. The introduction of defects allows selective gas permeation3–5; efforts have been made to control the size of these defects for higher selectivity6–9. Permeation of entities other than gases, such as ions10,11, is of fundamental scientific interest because of its potential application in desalination, detection and purification12–16. However, a precise experimental observation of halide permeation has so far remained unknown11,15–18. Here we show halide permeation through a single benzene-sized defect in a molecular nanographene. Using supramolecular principles of self-aggregation, we created a stable bilayer of the nanographene19–23. As the cavity in the bilayer nanographene could be accessed only by two angstrom-sized windows, any halide that gets trapped inside the cavity has to permeate through the single benzene hole. Our experiments reveal the permeability of fluoride, chloride and bromide through a single benzene hole, whereas iodide is impermeable. Evidence for high permeation of chloride across single-layer nanographene and selective halide binding in a bilayer nanographene provides promise for the use of single benzene defects in graphene for artificial halide receptors24,25, as filtration membranes26 and further to create multilayer artificial chloride channels.