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Cooling down to near absolute zero

22.09.2017

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed and tested a new cooling technology that uses a combination of magnetic fields and laser light. During the experiments, a magnetic field trapped a calcium monofluoride molecule, and the light of several lasers was used to cool this molecule to a temperature of 50 microkelvins, 50 millionths of a degree above absolute zero (-273,15 degrees Celsius).

Note that the new technology is by no means the first and only technology for low-temperature cooling of individual molecules of a substance. However, the new technology allows the use of a wider range of molecular species than the traditional laser cooling method. Using the new method, it is possible to cool even the molecules of the most exotic substances that do not exist in nature and are synthesized in the laboratory.

From the course of school physics, we know that temperature is a measure of the speed of the chaotic movement of particles, atoms or molecules, any substance, gas, liquid or solid. And to cool the particles, you need to slow them down to the lowest possible speed.

It is to slow down the speed of movement of calcium monofluoride molecules in this case that the light of several lasers is used, directed at the molecule from different sides. The first laser illuminates the cooled molecule from the left and this molecule absorbs one of the photons. This photon takes some of its kinetic energy away from the molecule, like a billiard ball colliding with another billiard ball. But from the first time, the molecule does not lose its momentum completely, it starts moving in the other direction, where it is overtaken by a photon of light from a laser installed on the opposite side. Due to the movement of the molecule and the Doppler effect, the wavelength of the photon of the light of the second laser decreases, this photon is absorbed by the molecule, which slows down even more from this.

As a result of this laser "ping-pong", the molecule, acting as a ball, gradually slows down and becomes colder. At the same time, the light from additional lasers keeps the molecule in an excited energy state, which allows it to emit photons of light immediately after absorbing photons of light from the "slow down" lasers. These photons are emitted in arbitrary directions and do not change the amount of kinetic energy of the molecule's motion very much, but this is enough for the molecule to always remain slightly "warm".

To overcome the minimum temperature limit of Doppler cooling technology, scientists used a magnetic field, which acted as a trap for the molecule, to orient it in space in a given direction and to raise it to a certain height relative to the initial one, which led to an increase in potential energy and a proportional decrease in kinetic energy molecules. And such a trick made it possible to reduce the kinetic energy of the molecule to a level corresponding to a temperature of 50 microkelvins.

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