Atomic and molecular physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Azobenzene is perhaps the archetypal light-activated molecule, widely used for photoswitching applications, but the mechanism of isomerisation remains in doubt. Here, the authors provide high-resolution excitation spectra of trans-azobenzene, identifying the structural changes accompanying photoisomerisation.

    • Eric M. M. Tan
    • , Saeed Amirjalayer
    •  & Wybren Jan Buma

  • Article |

    A long-standing debate on the foundation of quantum mechanics is whether wave–particle duality and the uncertainty principle are equivalent. Here Coles et al. show that the wave–particle duality relation corresponds to a formulation of the uncertainty principle in terms of min- and max-entropies.

    • Patrick J. Coles
    • , Jedrzej Kaniewski
    •  & Stephanie Wehner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Characterizing and understanding the profile of atomic spectral lines tells us a great deal about an atom’s properties. Here, the authors combine attosecond transient spectroscopy and the SPIDER technique to reconstruct the dipole oscillation phase of the auto-ionisation inner-shell transition in neon.

    • Hiroki Mashiko
    • , Tomohiko Yamaguchi
    •  & Hideki Gotoh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are a versatile platform for modelling simplified physical systems. By tuning structural deformations in bipartite optical lattices, Di Liberto et al. induce superfluid-to-Mott-insulator phase transitions that may shed light on condensed-matter systems such as the cuprates.

    • M. Di Liberto
    • , T. Comparin
    •  & C. Morais Smith

  • Article |

    Helium is an atom of great scientific interest, yet much debate exists surrounding the shape its molecules form. Here Voigtsberger et al. present experimental results imaging the wavefuction of 4He3 and 3He4He2 trimer systems, which suggest that 4He3 is a random cloud while 3He4He2is a quantum halo state.

    • J. Voigtsberger
    • , S. Zeller
    •  & R. Dörner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-ray scattering experiments give details of the electrons in a system, although typically this is dominated by core and inert valence electrons. Here, the authors report a method to follow changes in the chemically active valence electrons, and use it to study the reaction mechanism of a pericyclic reaction.

    • Timm Bredtmann
    • , Misha Ivanov
    •  & Gopal Dixit

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Van der Waals interactions are difficult to calculate at an atomistic level for moderate sized structures due to the many distinct atoms involved. Here, the authors measure the van der Waals force between an organic molecule and a metal surface, examining the non-additive part of these interactions.

    • Christian Wagner
    • , Norman Fournier
    •  & F. Stefan Tautz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Slow and stored light induced by electromagnetically induced transparency can enhance the strength of light–matter interaction and enable nonlinear optical processes even at single-photon levels. Here Lee, et al.demonstrate spinor slow light using a double-tripod atom–light coupling scheme.

    • Meng-Jung Lee
    • , Julius Ruseckas
    •  & Ite A. Yu

  • Article |

    Trapped ions are promising for studies of atomic and quantum physics, but their need for radiofrequency fields poses numerous technical limitations. Huber et al.present an approach using far-off-resonance optical traps, circumventing radiofrequency fields to improve on photon scattering and recoil heating.

    • Thomas Huber
    • , Alexander Lambrecht
    •  & Tobias Schaetz

  • Article |

    Spin–orbit coupling gives rise to a plethora of rich phenomena in many condensed matter and atomic systems. Syzranov et al.study the role of dipole–dipole interactions in ultracold polar molecule gases and show that they produce an effective spin–orbit coupling that generates chiral excitations.

    • Sergey V. Syzranov
    • , Michael L. Wall
    •  & Ana Maria Rey

  • Article |

    Short pulses of atoms or molecules can act as sensitive probes for numerous physical and chemical systems, but they are typically limited to the microsecond scale. By exploiting short pulse laser photolysis, Kaufmann et al. present a method that can produce pulses of hydrogen atoms on sub-nanosecond scales.

    • Sven Kaufmann
    • , Dirk Schwarzer
    •  & Oliver Bünermann

  • Article |

    Individual emitters of light in close proximity, such as atoms, can couple together via the light they create leading to a concentrated burst of radiation. Here Mlynek et al.experminetally explore the fundamental origin of this superradiance by studying two superconducting qubits coupled to a microwave cavity.

    • J. A. Mlynek
    • , A. A. Abdumalikov
    •  & A. Wallraff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultracold atomic gases show interesting quantum effects but the traps needed to study them are complex and often unwieldy. This study proposes a flexible and robust trapping scheme based on a spatially modulated atomic dressing field, created from an inductive loop, that traps atoms in one-dimensional guides.

    • German A. Sinuco-León
    • , Kathryn A. Burrows
    •  & Barry M. Garraway

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contact parameterises two-body correlations at short distances in dilute systems like ultracold atomic gases. Using a fundamental thermodynamic relation, Chen et al.study the contact near a continuous classical or quantum phase transition and find that it displays a number of critical behaviours.

    • Y.-Y. Chen
    • , Y.-Z. Jiang
    •  & Qi Zhou

  • Article |

    Point defects in a surface can subtly alter the bulk phonon spectra. Here, the authors show phonon spectra of point defects that are capable of differentiating between different degrees of integration—alloyed or loose in a vacancy—of an atom into a surface.

    • K. Volgmann
    • , H. Gawronski
    •  & K. Morgenstern

  • Article |

    In condensed matter physics, p-wave chiral superfluidity is an unconventional topological many-body quantum state. Here, Liu et al. report a new mechanism to achieve a centre-of-mass p-wave chiral superfluid state in a spin imbalanced atomic Fermi gas with s-wave interaction.

    • Bo Liu
    • , Xiaopeng Li
    •  & W Vincent Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Knowledge of hydrogen content and coordination in deuterized metals is of importance. Here, the authors study the deuterization of face-centred cubic iron in-situvia neutron diffraction, observing the occupation by hydrogen of both octahedral and tetrahedral interstitial sites.

    • Akihiko Machida
    • , Hiroyuki Saitoh
    •  & Katsutoshi Aoki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrons can behave as if they are at a temperature different from that of the solid in which they are embedded. Here, the authors demonstrate a room temperature device that can generate electrons with an effective temperature of 45 K by using quantum wells to filter out energetic particles.

    • Pradeep Bhadrachalam
    • , Ramkumar Subramanian
    •  & Seong Jin Koh

  • Article |

    Through light–matter interactions, the combination of atomic and plasmonic systems provides new spectral resonances that offer tunable spectral responses. Stern et al.show that the coupling of a plasmonic metal film with rubidium vapour leads to Fano resonances that can be all-optically controlled.

    • Liron Stern
    • , Meir Grajower
    •  & Uriel Levy

  • Article |

    Testing the validity of the quantum superposition principle with increasingly large particles may shed light on the quantum to classical transition for macroscopic objects. Here, Bateman et al. propose a near-field interference scheme based on the single-source Talbot effect for 106 amu silicon particles.

    • James Bateman
    • , Stefan Nimmrichter
    •  & Hendrik Ulbricht

  • Article |

    Laser cooling of atoms is now routine, but cooling molecules is more difficult due to the larger number of transition frequencies involved. Here, the authors show that a broadband laser can be used to provide cooling of a molecule into its ground rotational-vibrational state.

    • Chien-Yu Lien
    • , Christopher M Seck
    •  & Brian C. Odom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a powerful technique that can identify the presence of certain atoms in a sample by their magnetic properties. Müller et al.now take this concept to its ultimate limit by measuring individual nuclear spins near the surface of diamond.

    • C. Müller
    • , X. Kong
    •  & F. Jelezko

  • Article |

    Quantum computers require precise control and addressing of individual qubits in a register, but this is impeded by cross-talk between them. Here, in an eight-qubit trapped-ion register, Piltz et al. present an approach to obtain cross-talk of the order of 10−5, surpassing current thresholds for quantum gates.

    • C. Piltz
    • , T. Sriarunothai
    •  & C. Wunderlich

  • Article |

    Developments in ultrafast optical science bring the promise of being able to directly monitor atomic motions during various physical processes. Towards this end, Xu et al.present fixed-angle broadband laser-induced electron scattering as a method to image molecular structures from photoelectron spectra.

    • Junliang Xu
    • , Cosmin I. Blaga
    •  & Louis F. DiMauro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultracold Rydberg atoms — atoms with highly excited electrons — can form molecules with ground state atoms. By tuning the principal quantum number of the Rydberg state, Gaj et al.study the transition from resolvable molecular lines to the mean shift regime, where indistinguishable lines form a band.

    • A. Gaj
    • , A. T. Krupp
    •  & T. Pfau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring forces on antimatter is vital to testing our understanding of fundamental physics. Towards this aim, Aghion et al.present a method to measure the deflection of antiprotons based on an atom optical tool, the moiré deflectometer, which could be extended to future antihydrogen gravity measurements.

    • S. Aghion
    • , O. Ahlén
    •  & J. Zmeskal

  • Article |

    The observation of Majorana modes is one of the great challenges in the field of cold atomic gases. Here Bühler et al. propose an experimentally realistic setup for the realization of p-wave superfluids supporting Majorana fermions at lattice dislocations.

    • A. Bühler
    • , N. Lang
    •  & H.P. Büchler

  • Article |

    Understanding the effects of space–charge interactions is vital to a number of areas, from ion beam lithography to ultrafast electron diffraction. Using an ultracold atom source, Murphy et al.create cold ion bunches to observe space–charge dynamics without the thermal diffusion of conventional ion sources.

    • D. Murphy
    • , R. W. Speirs
    •  & R. E. Scholten

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atoms experience large and typically undesirable forces near dielectric surfaces due to quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum. The work of Chang et al.proposes a scheme in which these forces can be exploited to create strong atomic traps at nanoscale distances from surfaces.

    • D. E. Chang
    • , K. Sinha
    •  & H. J. Kimble

  • Article |

    Molecules can be used as junctions in energy conversion devices, but the related heat dissipation and transport mechanisms are poorly understood. Wang and Xu address this issue in simulations and identify the critical power to maintain thermal stability at a model molecular junction interface.

    • Yanlei Wang
    •  & Zhiping Xu

  • Article |

    It is a huge challenge to measure long-range atom–surface interactions, the Casimir–Polder effects, at elevated temperatures. Here, Laliotis et al.report a spectroscopic measurement on caesium atoms approximately 100 nm away from a hot sapphire surface, influenced by the thermal excitation of surface modes.

    • Athanasios Laliotis
    • , Thierry Passerat de Silans
    •  & Daniel Bloch

  • Article |

    Understanding the dynamics of molecules exposed to intense X-ray beams is crucial to ongoing efforts in biomolecular imaging with free-electron lasers. Here, the authors study C60molecules interacting with femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser pulses and present a model based on classical and quantum physics.

    • B. F. Murphy
    • , T. Osipov
    •  & N. Berrah

  • Article |

    Photoexciting molecules provides insights into their different degrees of freedom if the ultrafast electron and nuclei motion can be properly analysed. To this end, McFarland et al.use X-ray pump-probe techniques to show that Auger spectra can unveil information on nuclear relaxation in molecules.

    • B. K. McFarland
    • , J. P. Farrell
    •  & M. Gühr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rydberg atoms are appealing for sensing, atomic and quantum information studies, if they can be suitably integrated with optical devices. Towards this end, Epple et al. show that caesium-filled kagome-lattice hollow-core photonic crystal fibres provide a platform for fibre-based spectroscopy of Rydberg states.

    • G. Epple
    • , K. S. Kleinbach
    •  & R. Löw

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic disordering in antiphase boundary regions is believed to deteriorate ferromagnetic spin order in many alloys and compounds. Here, using electron microscopy, Murakami et al. report the unusual relationship between thermal antiphase boundaries and ferromagnetic spin order in Fe70Al30.

    • Y. Murakami
    • , K. Niitsu
    •  & D. Shindo

  • Article |

    In nanoscale magnetic resonance, the coupling with negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond—used as optical transducers—broadens the spectrum of the spin to detect. Wang et al.present a detection technique that resolves the spin spectra through optically detected cross-relaxation.

    • Hai-Jing Wang
    • , Chang S. Shin
    •  & Vikram S. Bajaj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atoms lose coherence via interactions with each other and the walls of their environment, which degrades the performance of atomic systems. As a route to minimize such effects, Okaba et al.use kagome-lattice hollow-core photonic crystal fibres to confine atoms, preventing them interacting with the wall.

    • Shoichi Okaba
    • , Tetsushi Takano
    •  & Hidetoshi Katori

  • Article |

    The sensitive measurement of physical quantities offers a wide range of applications in fundamental and applied science. Cai et al. propose a hybrid technology combining colour centres in diamond and piezoactive layers to realize force, pressure and electric field sensors with nanoscale resolution.

    • Jianming Cai
    • , Fedor Jelezko
    •  & Martin B. Plenio

  • Article |

    Roaming dynamics have been shown to be important in unimolecular decompositions, but the relevance to bimolecular reactions has been less clear. Here, the authors study radical addition/elimination reactions and implicate a roaming transition state in a bimolecular reaction.

    • Baptiste Joalland
    • , Yuanyuan Shi
    •  & Alexander M. Mebel

  • Article |

    During photoionization, the recoil of the atom or molecule due to the ejected electron can subtly alter the observed photoelectron and Auger spectra from expectations. Here, the authors study Auger emission from isolated neon atoms and see a Doppler shift in the spectrum resulting from translation recoil.

    • Marc Simon
    • , Ralph Püttner
    •  & Denis Céolin

  • Article |

    Interactions between nano-porous materials and gases possess rich redox chemistry. Here, the authors report a metal organic framework, a nano-porous material, that undergoes an atypical metal–insulator–metal transition intertwined with oxygen adsorption-desorption, which defies the classical picture.

    • Sergey N. Maximoff
    •  & Berend Smit

  • Article |

    Spin-orbit coupling in a Bose–Einstein condensate provides an additional degree of freedom to explore interesting phenomena. Hamner et al.study the ground state of such a system and show that it exhibits a transition between normal and superradiant phases that can be described by the Dicke model.

    • Chris Hamner
    • , Chunlei Qu
    •  & Peter Engels

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fundamental theories do not predict a difference between the properties of matter and antimatter, but experimental tests of this are still in their infancy. To this end, this study analyses the effects of electric fields on antihydrogen atoms in the ALPHA trap to place a bound on the charge of antihydrogen.

    • C. Amole
    • , M. D. Ashkezari
    •  & A. E. Charman

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