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| Title: |
High-density gas of ultracold molecules |
| Description: |
I. Artist's conception of a gas of ultracold potassium (K) and rubidium (Rb) molecules. The atoms are about 10,000 Bohr radii apart. II. Lowering the magnetic field leads to the creation of extremely loosely bound molecules. Atoms in these large, fluffy molecules are about 300 Bohr radii apart. III. Creation of ground-state polar molecules. Two lasers locked to different lines in the same frequency comb coherently transfer the loosely bound molecules into tightly bound molecules in the low-energy "ground" state.
IV. Ground-state polar molecules with a permanent positive charge at the Rb and a permanent negative charge at the K, which means their behavior can be studied and controlled with electric fields. These molecules are in the lowest-energy (ground) state and their atomic nuclei are about 8 Bohr radii apart. V. Possible future applications of ground-state polar molecules. Because of their potential for strong interactions, ground-state polar molecules could play a role in data processing in quantum computers, controlling reaction rates in ultracold chemistry, and magnifying sub-nanoscale effects in precision measurement problems.
*Physics
See also http://www.nist.gov/pml/div689/ultracold_polar_molecules.cfm.
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| Subjects (names): |
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| Topics/Categories: |
Quantum Physics--Quantum Computing
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| Type: |
Graphic/illustration |
| Source: |
National Institute of Standards and Technology |
Credit Line as it should
appear in print: |
Credit: G. Kuebler/JILA |
| AV Number: |
08PHY023 |
| Date Created: |
2008 |
| Date Entered: |
9/17/2008 |
