Cold atoms and matter waves is a research area focused on the quantum behavior of dilute atomic gases cooled to microkelvin or nanokelvin temperatures, where their de Broglie wavelengths become comparable to interparticle spacing and wave-like properties dominate. It encompasses the production and manipulation of Bose–Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, coherent control of atomic matter waves using optical and magnetic potentials, and exploration of many-body quantum phenomena in engineered lattices and traps. The field underpins precision metrology, quantum simulation, and interferometry by exploiting long coherence times, tunable interactions, and highly controllable external degrees of freedom of ultracold atomic ensembles.
Researchers at the ArQuS Laboratory of the University of Trieste (Italy) and the National Institute of Optics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-INO) have achieved the first imaging of individual trapped cold atoms ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 23, 2025
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In the past year, two separate experiments in two different materials captured the same confounding scenario: the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism. Scientists had assumed that these two quantum states are mutually ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 22, 2025
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Scientists have made leaps and bounds in bending atoms to their will, making them into everything from ultraprecise clocks to bits of quantum data. Translating these quantum technologies from obedient atoms to unruly molecules ...
General Physics
Dec 18, 2025
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Like their conventional counterparts, quantum computers can also break down. They can sometimes lose the atoms they manipulate to function, which can stop calculations dead in their tracks. But scientists at the US-based ...
The microscopic processes taking place in superconductors are difficult to observe directly. Researchers at the RPTU University of Kaiserslautern-Landau have therefore implemented a quantum simulation of the Josephson effect: ...
Superconductivity
Dec 12, 2025
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Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have shown that quantum sensors can remain highly accurate even in extremely noisy conditions. It's the first experimental realization of a powerful quantum sensing protocol, outperforming ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 1, 2025
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Optical lattice clocks are devices that measure the passing of time via the frequency of light that is absorbed or emitted by laser-cooled atoms trapped in a repeating pattern of light interference known as optical lattice.
At low temperatures, hydrogen atoms move less like particles and more like waves. This characteristic enables quantum tunneling, the passage of an atom through a barrier with a higher potential energy than the energy of the ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 21, 2025
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242
Physics is often about recognizing patterns, sometimes repeated across vastly different scales. For instance, moons orbit planets in the same way planets orbit stars, which in turn orbit the center of a galaxy.
Soft Matter
Nov 19, 2025
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Researchers from Hanns-Christoph Nägerl's group have produced the world's first ultracold KCs molecules in their absolute ground state. Starting by mixing clouds of potassium and cesium atoms cooled almost to absolute zero ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 17, 2025
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