Chinese scientists prepare ultracold triatomic molecular ensembles with high-phase space density

Pan Jianwei, Zhao Bo, and others from the University of Science and Technology of China used the coherent synthesis method to prepare an ensemble of ultracold three-atom molecules with a high phase space density for the first time in the world. An important step forward in the study of ultracold quantum chemistry and quantum simulation of ultracold molecules.

Its relevant research results have been published in the international authoritative academic journal Science on December 2. The reviewers of Science magazine believe that this study is a milestone in the field of ultracold molecular research, opening up new directions for ultracold chemistry and quantum simulation research.

The research team successfully used magnetic association technology for the first time to prepare an ensemble of ultracold three-atom molecules with high phase space density. They used radio frequency dissociation technology to dissociate triatomic molecules into free sodium and potassium molecules and atoms, and obtained dissociation spectra, thus realizing the direct detection of triatomic molecules.

The experimental results show that the phase space density of their obtained triatomic molecular gas is about 10 orders of magnitude higher than the previous best record, which represents an important milestone in ultracold chemistry and physics.

The preparation of an ensemble of ultracold triatomic molecules paves the way for simulating the three-body problem under quantum mechanics, and the obtained high phase space density also makes it possible to prepare Bose-Einstein condensates of triatomic molecules.