Cold molecules: a chemistry kitchen for physicists

Olivier Dulieu
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire Aimé Cotton,
Orsay, France

The title of this talk refers too a special issue of Journal of Physics B published in 2006 [1]. In the original publication the title contained a question mark that I removed here. Indeed the amazing results obtained since then demonstrated the impact of ultracold molecule research in many areas, including not only chemistry, but also molecular spectroscopy, ultracold collisions, and exquisite control of quantum systems. In this talk I will review some of these aspects that we investigated in our group in Orsay, in particular regarding the formation and destruction processes of ultracold molecules, and the control of their interactions using laser light.

[1] J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 39 (2006)