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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Taking tenuous helium molecules for a spin

Zapping helium ‘dimers’ with lasers allows a glimpse into a fleeting relationship.
Emission spectrum of helium.

The emission spectrum of helium. Laser pulses can expose quantum aspects of pairs of helium atoms. Credit: Dept. of Physics, Imperial College/SPL

Helium atoms are stand-offish, rarely interacting with atoms of other elements or with one another. But physicists know that helium atoms cooled close to absolute zero can be coaxed into forming fragile pairs, or dimers, of a particularly quantum nature.

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Nature 589, 173 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03653-y

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