ultracold molecules

For scientists investigating the behavior of cold atoms trapped in a web of interfering lasers, two kinds of atoms can be better than one. The second species allows researchers to study more complex dynamics, like how the interactions between atoms caught in a 3-D lattice can form molecules stationed at the same site.

In high school chemistry Bunsen burners are used to prompt species into combinations. For ultracold chemistry, carried out at temperatures a billion times colder than room temperature and a million times colder than interstellar space, more targeted methods are necessary, especially if molecules and not atoms are the reactants.