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Condensed-matter physics

Really cool molecules

Nature volume 424, pages 24–25 (2003)Cite this article

Ultracold molecules have been made by applying a changing magnetic field to a quantum gas of 'fermionic' atoms. This raises the prospect of creating novel superfluids and molecular Bose–Einstein condensates.

At the quantum level, any particle can also be considered to be a wave, its momentum corresponding to a wavelength. In ultracold atomic gases, at temperatures much lower than a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, the wavelength of the atoms becomes larger than the mean distance between them, giving rise to some remarkable quantum mechanical properties that are at the forefront of contemporary physics research1. The properties of such cold quantum gases depend on whether the atoms are bosons or fermions. Bosonic atoms have integer values of the quantum number known as spin, and can form a Bose–Einstein condensate in which the trapped atoms occupy the single ground state of the system. Fermionic atoms, on the other hand, have half-integer spin values and each identical fermion must occupy a different quantum level. But if two fermions paired up to make a bosonic molecule, an exotic kind of superfluidity — flow without resistance — could be the result2,3,4. On page 47 of this issue, Regal et al.5 describe an important step in this direction.

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Figure 1: Making cold molecules.

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  1. the Atomic Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, 20899-8432, Maryland, USA

    Paul S. Julienne

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Correspondence to Paul S. Julienne.

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Julienne, P. Really cool molecules. Nature 424, 24–25 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424024a

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