Browse Physics

A theoretical model finds that atoms can organize themselves into a regularly spaced row when trapped between a pair of nanosized optical fibers.

A tiny cavity made from two optical fibers—previously used only with neutral atoms—strengthens the interaction between an ion and a photon, an important step toward quantum computers and networks.

David Wineland and Serge Haroche, who studied photons and atoms in new ways, have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In a step toward 3D movies, researchers have combined short laser pulses with electron diffraction methods to rapidly map the structure of a simple molecule in three dimensions.

Variations in density in an ultracold gas reveal sound waves of quantum origin.

Infrared spectroscopy can detect trace gases and potentially provide an alternative carbon dating technique.

Experimentalists have mapped the quantum states (band structure) of cold atoms mimicking electrons in a crystal. The technique should allow researchers to study new aspects of electrons in crystals using the atoms as a model.

Experiments show that the tumbling of gas molecules has a significant effect on the energies of electrons they eject in response to x rays.

A switch made from a molecule and an atom can be reliably turned on and off many times, and its inventors recorded its motion in great detail. It could be used in future nanoscale circuits.

According to simulations, ultrashort electron pulses could serve as probes of the rapid motion of atomic or molecular electrons, such as the “breathing” of an excited atom or the shuttling of an electron between atoms in a molecule.

Three Bose-Einstein condensates can be merged to create controlled arrays of exotic topological structures, according to theory.

The coldest antiprotons ever produced–which reached 9 kelvin–were cooled with a tried-and-true method for neutral atoms. The result is an essential step on the road to studying antihydrogen.

Researchers beat the quantum-mechanical fluctuations in an atomic clock by linking many atoms into an entangled quantum state and pushing the fluctuations into a realm that doesn’t influence the time measurement.

The rate at which ultracold molecules react is limited by quantum mechanical effects not seen in ordinary chemistry, according to calculations that agree with recent experiments.

Negative ions dissolved in water may be attracted to the surface because of the rearrangement of charges within the ions.

Calculations reveal that a dense cloud of cold atoms pumped with lasers can glow with its own laser light. Such ‘random lasers’ have previously been made only from solid and liquid materials.

By bouncing cold atoms repeatedly using laser pulses, researchers have devised a way to measure the strength of gravity with a compact device.

A hydrogen molecule trapped in a carbon cage is restricted to discrete energies of linear and rotational motion, an unusually clean demonstration of the wave nature of molecules.

Researchers created an ultracold plasma with molecules, rather than atoms, which opens a new window into the dynamics of this strange state of matter.

In the 1970s and 80s, researchers developed techniques for cooling atoms to very low temperatures using laser light. The work led to improvements in atomic clocks and the observation of a new ultracold state of matter.