{"id":178602,"date":"2023-12-18T17:39:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T23:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/study-physicists-create-giant-trilobite-rydberg-molecules"},"modified":"2023-12-18T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T23:39:29","slug":"study-physicists-create-giant-trilobite-rydberg-molecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/study-physicists-create-giant-trilobite-rydberg-molecules","title":{"rendered":"Study: Physicists create giant trilobite Rydberg molecules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/study-physicists-create-giant-trilobite-rydberg-molecules2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kaiserslautern physicists in the team of Professor Dr. Herwig Ott have succeeded for the first time in directly observing pure trilobite Rydberg molecules. Particularly interesting is that these molecules have a very peculiar shape, which is reminiscent of trilobite fossils. They also have the largest electric dipole moments of any molecule known so far.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers used a dedicated apparatus that is capable of preparing these fragile <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/molecules\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">molecules<\/a> at ultralow temperatures. The results reveal their chemical binding mechanisms, which are distinct from all other chemical bonds. The study was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-023-43818-7\">published<\/a> in the journal Nature Communications.<\/p>\n<p>For their experiment, the physicists used a cloud of rubidium <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/atoms\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">atoms<\/a> that was cooled down in an <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/ultra-high+vacuum\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">ultra-high vacuum<\/a> to about 100 microkelvin\u20140.0001 degrees above absolute zero. Subsequently, they excited some of these atoms into a so-called Rydberg state using lasers. \u201cIn this process, the outermost electron in each case is brought into far-away orbits around the atomic body,\u201d explains Professor Herwig Ott, who researches ultracold quantum gases and quantum atom optics at University of Kaiserslautern-Landau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kaiserslautern physicists in the team of Professor Dr. Herwig Ott have succeeded for the first time in directly observing pure trilobite Rydberg molecules. Particularly interesting is that these molecules have a very peculiar shape, which is reminiscent of trilobite fossils. They also have the largest electric dipole moments of any molecule known so far. The [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}