Posted: September 30, 2009 |
NSF grant bolsters research towards understanding atomic collisions |
(Nanowerk News) A Kansas State University physicist is continuing his study of atomic collisions with the help of a National Science Foundation grant awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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Brett Esry, professor of physics, received more than $282,000 from the National Science Foundation to study what happens when atoms collide in groups of three and four. These few-body collisions play an important role in experiments on ultracold quantum gasses. Esry said a better theoretical understanding of these collisions could help physicists improve design of experiments and interpretation of what has been measured. A better understanding of ultracold quantum gasses can potentially affect such technologically important phenomena as superconductivity and quantum computing.
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Moreover, understanding few-body collisions can improve our understanding of chemistry in outer space, Esry said. One of the simplest reactions that forms molecules from atoms occurs when three atoms combine to form a diatomic molecule. That means these collisions play an important role in the chemistry of interstellar clouds and planetary atmospheres. At higher temperatures, these reactions become important to combustion.
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Esry and his research group at K-State focus on these ultracold atomic systems and on understanding the dynamics of atoms and molecules in intense laser fields. Esry conducts his work in K-State's J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Esry also is receiving a grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research for the project "Ultracold polar molecules: New phases of matter for quantum information and quantum control." This effort joins 10 research groups from these institutions: Georgetown University; the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago; the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland; JILA at the University of Colorado and also affiliated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology; Durham University in the United Kingdom; and the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
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K-State's Macdonald Laboratory also is the recipient of a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The nearly $1.3 million grant builds the infrastructure of the lab, adding a new laser system with nearly 10 times the capability of the current system, said Itzik Ben-Itzhak, the lab's director.
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"This new laser system represents a substantial investment by the Department of Energy in our lab and its continued productivity, as well as a clear recognition of Kansas State University's strong commitment to our program."
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With these awards, Esry and the other nine faculty who work in the lab and the larger atomic, molecular and optical physics group bring nearly $5 million dollars per year to K-State, Ben-Itzhak said.
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