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Low-temperature physics

Cool molecules

Nature volume 492, pages 364–365 (2012)Cite this article

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A sample of the hydroxyl radical has been cooled to a temperature of a few millikelvin. The result opens the door to observing phenomena such as Bose–Einstein condensation of molecules in their ground state. See Letter p.396

Since the advent of laser cooling and evaporative cooling more than two decades ago, ultracold trapped atoms at temperatures close to a millionth of a kelvin have been used in a wide range of research involving precision measurement and exotic quantum phenomena. Molecules, on the other hand, have resisted cooling down to even 1 millikelvin. On page 396 of this issue, Stuhl et al.1 describe a breakthrough in molecular cooling. They demonstrate strong evaporative cooling that lowers the temperature from 50 mK to just a few millikelvin and increases the density of a decelerated and trapped sample of the chemically interesting hydroxyl radical (OH).

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  1. Paul S. Julienne is at the Joint Quantum Institute, NIST and the University of Maryland, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899–8423, USA.,

    Paul S. Julienne

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  1. Paul S. Julienne
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Correspondence to Paul S. Julienne.

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Julienne, P. Cool molecules. Nature 492, 364–365 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/492364a

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