New 'refrigerator' super-cools molecules to nanokelvin temperatures
Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 13:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Physicists have found a way to cool molecules of sodium lithium down to 200 billionths of a Kelvin, just a hair above absolute zero. They did so by applying a technique called collisional cooling, in which they immersed molecules of cold sodium lithium in a cloud of even colder sodium atoms. The ultracold atoms acted as a refrigerant to cool the molecules even further.