Ultracold chemistry
FEB 11, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024077
Science : New techniques are now making it possible to produce molecules and trap them at temperatures within one-millionth of a degree of absolute zero .Here, all the thermal averaging is removed; the molecules occupy the lowest possible quantum translational states, and all their motions are completely controllable.S. Ospelkaus and colleagues describe chemical reactions between molecules in this new regime and find that tiny changes, such as flipping the orientation of a single nuclear spin, can have profound consequences for how (and whether) chemical reactions occur. Related link Quantum-state controlled chemical reactions of ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
