Towards Ultracold Organic Chemistry: Prospects of Laser Cooling Large Organic Molecules

Ultracold organic chemistry enables studies of reaction dynamics and mechanisms in quantum regime. Access to ultracold molecules hinges on the ability to efficiently scattermultiple photons via quasi-closed cycling transitions and, in practice, is complicated by the complex electronic structure of polyatomic molecules. Using equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (EOM-CC) calculations, we demonstrate that an alkaline earth metal attached to various aromatic ligands (such as benzene, phenol, cyclopentadienyl and pyrrolide) feature nearly-closed cycling transitions with only a few additional repump lasers. We also show that aromatic ligands such as benzene can accommodate multiple cycling centers in various geometrical configurations and may open new avenues in quantum information science, precision measurements, and ultracold chemistry.