Matter waves and particle beams

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.

Manipulating the rotational motions of molecules may provide a tool for controlling chemical processes. Here the authors demonstrate that the rotation of a D₂ molecule can be stopped, upon collision with a metal surface, by a magnetic field that affects the rotational levels to a much smaller extent than the energy difference upon de-excitation.

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.

A silicon nitride microresonator is used for coherent phase modulation of a transmission electron microscope beam, with future applications in combining high-resolution microscopy with spectroscopy, holography and metrology.

Previously, the study of caustics has mostly focused on experiments with light. Here, the authors demonstrate gravitational caustics and investigate catastrophe atom optics using the matter waves of an atom laser generated from a Bose-Einstein condensate.