Mingda Li

Matter is like a house. In some rooms, there is the strict order of a crystal, where every atom is in its place. In others, the chaos of superfluid helium, where atoms forget about their neighbors.

Catching a single molecule in a beam of light and nearly stopping its motion is like trying to hold a dandelion fluff in a gust of wind. A particle that's too hot slips out of the trap, so physicists first tame its thermal jitters with laser cooling. The authors applied a technique called Sisyphus cooling to strontium hydroxide (SrOH) molecules.