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Vacuum chamber where ultracold gases of dipolar sodium-cesium molecules are made
In the vacuum chamber at Columbia University’s Will Lab, shown here, ultracold gases of dipolar sodium-cesium molecules are made using a combination of laser cooling and magnetic manipulations. Researchers in the lab created the first-ever Bose-Einstein condensate made from molecules, which was cooled to just 5 nanoKelvin, or about 459.66 degrees Fahrenheit, and stable for the strikingly-long period of two seconds.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY 1848466.]
Learn more in the NSF Discovery Files story Physicists create first-ever Bose-Einstein condensate made of molecules. (Date of image: July 27, 2021; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: July 15, 2024)
Credit: Sebastian Will/Will Lab/Columbia University
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