Method for preparation and readout of polyatomic molecules in single quantum states

Polyatomic molecular ions contain many desirable attributes of a useful quantum system, including rich internal degrees of freedom and highly controllable coupling to the environment. To date, the vast majority of state-specific experimental work on molecular ions has concentrated on diatomic species. The ability to prepare and readout polyatomic molecules in single quantum states would enable diverse experimental avenues not available with diatomics, including new applications in precision measurement, sensitive chemical and chiral analysis at the single molecule level, and precise studies of Hz-level molecular tunneling dynamics. While cooling the motional state of a polyatomic ion via sympathetic cooling with a laser cooled atomic ion is straightforward, coupling this motional state to the internal state of the molecule has proven challenging. Here we propose a new method for readout and projective measurement of the internal state of a trapped polyatomic ion. The method exploits the rich manifold of technically accessible rotational states in the molecule to realize robust state-preparation and readout with far less stringent engineering than quantum logic methods recently demonstrated on diatomic molecules. The method can be applied to any reasonably small (less than about 10 atoms) polyatomic ion with an anisotropic polarizability.