Scientists
revealed the formation of chemical bonds among rhenium atoms. Now a different group
have "held" atoms in place and revealed previously unknown
interactions among them.
As stated
in Physical Review Letters, scientists from the University of Otago have observed
the interaction of three rubidium atoms. Each atom was trapped, insulated, and
placed in a space with no other atoms inside and at a temperature just a little
over absolute zero. The objective was to study in detail how a molecule comes
to be. The members of team brought the three trapped atoms together and tailed
their interaction with a microscope camera. Two of the atoms fused into a
molecule and all three obtained energy from the reaction.
“Two atoms
alone cannot form a molecule, it takes at least three to undergo chemistry. Our
effort is the first time this simple process has been considered in isolation,
and it turns out that it gave many astonishing results that were not anticipated
from previous measurement in large clouds of atoms,” postdoctoral scientist
Marvin Weyland, who led the experiment, said in a statement.
The uniqueness
of the process is that they detected this interaction at a single event level,
providing a vibrant view of what’s happening. Earlier studies have looked at
many-atom procedures to study molecule creation in a different way.
“By
working at this molecular level, we can now tell more about how atoms collide
and react with one another. With improvement, this method could provide a way
to form and control single molecules of particular chemicals,” Weyland
explained.
The study shows
the need for review in the theoretical framework. The interface took much
longer than predicted. This might be due to a delicate interaction between
atomic forces and how the physicists isolated the atoms, but the group will
have to follow-up with further study to find out if this is indeed the case.
References:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200220130518.htm
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