Atomic and molecular physics articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    The behaviour of quantum fields in curved spacetime is simulated using a two-dimensional trapped quantum gas of potassium atoms with a configurable trap and adjustable interaction strength.

    • Celia Viermann
    • , Marius Sparn
    •  & Markus K. Oberthaler

  • Research Briefing |

    An optical clock based on a highly charged ion has been demonstrated for the first time. The results pave the way for extremely accurate highly charged-ion clocks that could have applications in both timekeeping and the further exploration of fundamental physics.

  • Article |

    An optical atomic clock operating on a magnetic-dipole transition in a highly charged argon ion is shown to improve uncertainties for the absolute transition frequency and isotope shift by several orders of magnitude.

    • Steven A. King
    • , Lukas J. Spieß
    •  & Piet O. Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A matter-wave interferometer is demonstrated with an interferometric phase noise below the standard quantum limit, combining two core concepts of quantum mechanics, that a particle can simultaneously be in two places at once and entanglement between distinct particles.

    • Graham P. Greve
    • , Chengyi Luo
    •  & James K. Thompson

  • Article |

    An elementary quantum network of two entangled atomic clocks is demonstrated; the high fidelity and speed of entanglement generation show that entangled clocks can offer practical enhancement for metrology.

    • B. C. Nichol
    • , R. Srinivas
    •  & D. M. Lucas

  • Article |

    A mechanism for self-oscillating pumping in a quantum gas is demonstrated using a Bose–Einstein condensate coupled to a dissipative cavity, where a particle current is observed without external periodic driving.

    • Davide Dreon
    • , Alexander Baumgärtner
    •  & Tobias Donner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rabi dynamics between the ground state and an excited state in helium atoms are generated using femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a seeded free-electron laser, which may allow ultrafast manipulation of coherent processes at short wavelengths.

    • Saikat Nandi
    • , Edvin Olofsson
    •  & Jan Marcus Dahlström

  • Article |

    An optically coupled Bose–Einstein condensate of potassium atoms is used to engineer chiral interactions and perform the quantum simulation of a one-dimensional reduction of the topological Chern–Simons gauge theory.

    • Anika Frölian
    • , Craig S. Chisholm
    •  & Leticia Tarruell

  • Research Briefing |

    Cooling molecular gases to nanokelvin temperatures is challenging because the molecules start to stick together when they reach the microkelvin range. Using a strong, rotating microwave field, a gas of sodium–potassium polar molecules has been stabilized and cooled to 21 nanokelvins — opening up many possibilities to explore exotic states of quantum matter.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A general and efficient approach to evaporatively cool ultracold polar molecules through elastic collisions to create a degenerate quantum gas in three dimensions is demonstrated using microwave shielding.

    • Andreas Schindewolf
    • , Roman Bause
    •  & Xin-Yu Luo

  • Article |

    Attosecond size-resolved cluster spectroscopy is introduced and the effect that the addition of single water molecules has is measured, indicating a direct link between electronic structure and attosecond photoionization dynamics.

    • Xiaochun Gong
    • , Saijoscha Heck
    •  & Hans Jakob Wörner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Heralded entanglement between two independently trapped single rubidium atoms is generated over long telecom fibre links using quantum frequency conversion in an important step towards the realization of large-scale quantum network links.

    • Tim van Leent
    • , Matthias Bock
    •  & Harald Weinfurter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A many-body theory of binding interactions between positrons and polar and nonpolar molecules is developed, showing agreement with experimental data up to within 1%.

    • Jaroslav Hofierka
    • , Brian Cunningham
    •  & Dermot G. Green

  • News & Views |

    A high-precision comparison of the magnetic moments of two isotopically different neon ions opens a path to the search for elusive particles that could explain the unexpectedly low observed mass of the Higgs boson.

    • Gerald Gwinner
    •  & Roshani Silwal

  • Research Briefing |

    Continuous amplification of coherent matter waves has been demonstrated, allowing an exotic state of matter called a Bose–Einstein condensate to be maintained indefinitely. This set-up is the matter-wave analogue of an optical laser enclosed by fully reflective mirrors, and it could have uses in both applied and fundamental physics.

  • Article |

    Precise control over the quantum state of a two-dimensional Fermi gas together with single-particle-resolved fluorescence imaging enables the direct observation of the formation of Cooper pairs at the Fermi surface.

    • Marvin Holten
    • , Luca Bayha
    •  & Selim Jochim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring the hyperfine structure of a single helium-3 ion in a Penning trap enables direct measurement of the nuclear magnetic moment of helium-3 and provides the high accuracy needed for NMR-based magnetometry.

    • A. Schneider
    • , B. Sikora
    •  & K. Blaum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous, indefinitely lasting Bose–Einstein condensation, sustained by amplification through Bose-stimulated gain of atoms from a thermal bath, creates a continuous-wave condensate of strontium atoms.

    • Chun-Chia Chen
    • , Rodrigo González Escudero
    •  & Florian Schreck

  • Article |

    Bubbles of ultracold atoms have been created, observed and characterized at the NASA Cold Atom Lab onboard the International Space Station, made possible by the microgravity environment of the laboratory.

    • R. A. Carollo
    • , D. C. Aveline
    •  & N. Lundblad

  • Article |

    A programmable neutral-atom quantum computer based on a two-dimensional array of qubits led to the creation of 2–6-qubit Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states and showed the ability to execute quantum phase estimation and optimization algorithms.

    • T. M. Graham
    • , Y. Song
    •  & M. Saffman

  • News & Views Forum |

    A quantum device uses ultracold atoms to sense gravitational changes that can detect a tunnel under a city street. Here, scientists discuss the advance from the viewpoints of quantum sensing and geophysics.

    • Nicola Poli
    • , Roman Pašteka
    •  & Pavol Zahorec

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study reports a quantum gravity gradient sensor with a design that eliminates the need for long measurement times, and demonstrates the detection of an underground tunnel in an urban environment.

    • Ben Stray
    • , Andrew Lamb
    •  & Michael Holynski

  • News & Views |

    Tests of relativity once required accurate clocks separated by thousands of kilometres. Optical techniques have now made such tests possible in an atomic cluster measuring no more than one millimetre in size.

    • Ksenia Khabarova

  • Article |

    Multiple ultracold ensembles of strontium atoms are trapped in the same optical lattice, realizing a multiplexed optical clock where precision measurements can benefit from having all atoms share the same trapping light and clock laser.

    • Xin Zheng
    • , Jonathan Dolde
    •  & Shimon Kolkowitz

  • Article |

    Entangled pairs of fermionic atoms in an optical lattice array have long-lived motional coherence, and the motion of each pair results in a robust qubit, protected by exchange symmetry.

    • Thomas Hartke
    • , Botond Oreg
    •  & Martin Zwierlein

  • Article |

    Multiple high-precision measurement campaigns at CERN of the antiproton-to-proton charge-to-mass ratio—to a precision of 16 parts per trillion—in a cryogenic multi-Penning trap offer no evidence of charge–parity–time violation, and set stringent limits on the clock-weak-equivalence principle.

    • M. J. Borchert
    • , J. A. Devlin
    •  & S. Ulmer

  • Article |

    Spontaneous crystallization of atoms occurs in a rotating ultracold Bose–Einstein condensate occupying the lowest Landau level, behaviour that is related to a quantum hydrodynamic instability driven by shear forces.

    • Biswaroop Mukherjee
    • , Airlia Shaffer
    •  & Martin Zwierlein

  • Article |

    Magnetically tunable interactions between lithium atoms and barium ions are used to demonstrate and probe Feshbach resonances between atoms and ions, which could have applications in the fields of experimental quantum simulation and fundamental physics.

    • Pascal Weckesser
    • , Fabian Thielemann
    •  & Tobias Schaetz

  • Article |

    Laser-free universal control of two trapped-ion qubits using a combination of radiofrequency and microwave magnetic fields achieves some of the highest fidelities ever reported for two-qubit maximally entangled states.

    • R. Srinivas
    • , S. C. Burd
    •  & D. H. Slichter

  • News & Views |

    Laser-cooled ions have been used to substantially lower the temperature of a proton located several centimetres away. This technique could be useful in ultraprecise measurements of the properties of antimatter particles.

    • Manas Mukherjee

  • Article |

    Directly coupling cavity photons to the photo-association resonances of pairs of atoms in a strongly interacting Fermi gas generates pair polaritons—hybrid excitaions coherently mixing photons, atom pairs and molecules.

    • Hideki Konishi
    • , Kevin Roux
    •  & Jean-Philippe Brantut

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single electromagnetically trapped proton is sympathetically cooled to below ambient temperature by coupling it through a superconducting LC circuit to a laser-cooled cloud of Be+ ions stored in a spatially separated trap.

    • M. Bohman
    • , V. Grunhofer
    •  & S. Ulmer

  • News & Views |

    Supersolids are exotic materials whose constituent particles can simultaneously form a crystal and flow without friction. The first 2D supersolid has been produced using ultracold gases of highly magnetic atoms.

    • Bruno Laburthe-Tolra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A globally chiral atomic superfluid is induced by time-reversal symmetry breaking in an optical lattice and exhibits global angular momentum, which is expected to lead to topological excitations and the demonstration of a topological superfluid.

    • Xiao-Qiong Wang
    • , Guang-Quan Luo
    •  & Zhi-Fang Xu

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