Physicists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have successfully experimented on the superchilled atoms and put them in a gas of sodium potassium in a temperature just a little over absolute zero, and over a million times colder than interstellar space.
The superchilled atoms are the coldest molecules that scientists have created. Superchilled molecules are two or more atoms chemically combined. The experiment could reveal the wild behavior of the molecules under the coldest temperature.
The scientists have discovered that the superchilled molecules do not react with other molecules and stable. Superchilled molecules displayed very strong dipole moments as well. Researchers have observed strong imbalances in electric charge within molecules, which mediate magnet-like forces between molecules over large distances.
Lead researcher and Physics professor from MIT Martin Zwierlein explained that molecules are packed with lots of energy. On the other hand, superchilled molecules experience lowest lowest vibrational and rotational states, according to R&D Magazine.
Physicists chose sodium potassium because it is the simplest class of molecules. Its structure consists of just two atoms, one each of potassium and sodium and combined together. In combining them, they have used magnetic field and for cooling them, a laser tool is being used, as per Live Science report.
Superchilled molecules theoretical properties are quite strange when compared to the behavior or molecules present in a room temperature.
Zwierlein said that superchilled molecules provide different states of matter including superfluid crystals. Researchers are excited to see more effects of the super cold temperature on molecules.