Researchers at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder, have created ultracold molecules by pairing individual potassium atoms, turning fermions into bosons. This process, which lasts only a millisecond, could lead to the creation of “super molecules” that would provide valuable tools for studying molecular quantum mechanics and superconductivity.
The team, led by Deborah Jin, used lasers and magnetic fields to manipulate a cloud of atoms at temperatures just above absolute zero, causing about 250,000 of the atoms to form molecules. These molecules, which require very low energy to break apart, could help researchers better understand superconductivity and potentially lead to the creation of fermion superfluids.
The work builds on previous experiments at JILA that resulted in the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), a fourth state of matter where a dense cloud of atoms acts like a single super atom. The current research is funded by NIST and the National Science Foundation.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2003/07/ultracold-molecules-pave-way-quantum-super-molecule
Keywords: Condensate, Fermions, Bosons, Superconductivity, Metrology
