Proposal for a controllable chip-based electrostatic double well for cold-molecule trapping

Over the past two decades, a chip-based atom double well has matured as a powerful art with many applications in modern science. However, its molecular counterpart, which holds potential for higher precision and broader science, has been little studied. In this paper, we propose a scheme for chip-based electrostatic double-well potential for polar molecules. The structure consists of two square wires and three square electrodes deposited on an insulating chip. By adjusting the applied voltages, versatile operations on the double well can be easily realized, such as precisely changing the depth and height of the double well, dynamically deforming the double-well potential to a single well and vice versa, and adjusting the double well from symmetric to asymmetric. We have developed numerical and analytical methods to verify the feasibility of our scheme with both light ($^{15}\mathrm{ND}_{3}$) and heavy ($^{202}\mathrm{Hg}^{19}\mathrm{F}$) polar molecules. The microscopic integrated double-well potential presents a promising platform for confined molecule interferometry. Also, it provides new perspectives for the study of cold collisions, sympathetic cooling, quantum information processing, and quantum simulation.