Physicists in the US have created ultracold polyatomic molecules by trapping and cooling them directly in three dimensions. Led by John Doyle at Harvard University, the team used a standard device known as a magneto-optical trap (MOT), plus additional laser cooling techniques, to reduce the temperature of a sample of calcium hydroxide (CaOH) molecules to just 110 µK. By showing that direct laser cooling is possible, the result opens the door to experiments in molecule-based quantum simulation and studies of chemical reactions involving polyatomic molecules.
