Molecules Are Magnetically Trapped
NOV 01, 1998
A Harvard University team used a helium buffer gas to cool CaH molecules, and then trap them.
DOI: 10.1063/1.882077
The techniques of magnetic trapping and evaporative cooling of atoms to nanokelvin temperatures have led to Bose–Einstein condensation in alkali atoms and atomic hydrogen and to studies of ultracold atomic collisions. But none of the optical cooling methods has worked for molecules because it hasn’t seemed possible to keep the molecules from being optically pumped into inaccessible states.
© 1998. American Institute of Physics
