Physicists have chilled the world's coolest molecule

[n2doc]

It's official. Yale physicists have chilled the world's coolest molecules.

The tiny titans in question are bits of strontium monofluoride, dropped to 2.5 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero through a laser cooling and isolating process called magneto-optical trapping (MOT). They are the coldest molecules ever achieved through direct cooling, and they represent a physics milestone likely to prompt new research in areas ranging from quantum chemistry to tests of the most basic theories in particle physics.

"We can start studying chemical reactions that are happening at very near to absolute zero," said Dave DeMille, a Yale physics professor and principal investigator. "We have a chance to learn about fundamental chemical mechanisms."

The research is published this week in the journal Nature.

Magneto-optical trapping has become ubiquitous among atomic physicists in the past generation -- but only at the single-atom level. The technology uses lasers to simultaneously cool particles and hold them in place. "Imagine having a shallow bowl with a little molasses in it," DeMille explained. "If you roll some balls into the bowl, they will slow down and accumulate at the bottom. For our experiment, the molecules are like the balls and the bowl with molasses is created via laser beams and magnetic fields."

more

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140821115924.htm

[gordianot]

1. Years ago I read a Science Fiction novel about hitting absolute zero.

Probably not possible no one has any idea what would happen. Even getting that close Fascinating

Great article

[Blue Owl]

2. McCain came really close with Palin

n/t

[gordianot]

3. But just think of all the joy Palin has brought to peoples lives.

Only today she was able to relate the positive impact she had on Tina Fey's career.

[sir pball]

5. It's strongly mathematically proven you can't get there..

It isn't like the speed of light where there's lots of wiggle room and thought experiments - as I recall (it has been over ten years since phys chem though), it's hard-provable that in order to reach 0K you need a crystal lattice that extends to infinity in all directions.

Who knows though, maybe you could actually do it and it would just crystallize the universe. Ice-9 anyone?

[eppur_se_muova]

6. To get to absolute zero would consume an infinite amount of energy ... nt

[caraher]

8. Atoms have been cooled to nano Kelvin temperatures

The folks who work with Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) use MOTs and evaporative cooling (basically, lowering the escape energy of the trap so the faster-moving hot atoms fly away) to reach much lower temperatures. As this article suggests, the techniques are a lot easier to apply with atoms.

Cooling and trapping even simple molecules is far more challenge (which is why the record is in the mK range!) The record for an atomic system is evidently half a nanoKelvin

[gordianot]

10. I find Physics fascinating will look up your links

Thanks

[Silent3]

4. I prefer my strontium monofluoride slightly chilled, but not that cold. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Several Years Ago . . .

. . .there were guys at CalState conducting work in what they called "femtochemistry".

They were doing similar cooling work to see if they could still conduct fundamental chemical mechanisms at very slow rates to experimentally determine the validity of those mechanisms.

Fascinating stuff. I met a couple of them at an ACS conference. Want to say 2001 or 2002.

I don't remember these guys getting the cooling down to anywhere close to this though.

[caraher]

9. Generally "femtochemistry" is any chemistry using femtosecond pulses lasers

I think Zewail coined the term. But I can definitely see combining cooling with femtosecond techniques as valuable. Even "ultrafast" pulses at optical wavelengths can be too slow to capture molecular dynamics (electron motions are more at the attosecond scale), so for the right processes cooling might slow the dynamics enough to study them. I guess it would be similar to the motivation to study Rydberg systems, where by exciting an electron almost to ionization you get very slow dynamics for that one electron.