physicsweb Physics news, jobs and resources Fermionic first for condensates Physics in Action: March 2004 The creation of the first fermionic condensate will herald a new generation of research into the properties of superfluids and superconductors Cool customer Since the first gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate was created in 1995. the field of ultracold matter has developed rapidly. We all knew from the start, however, that the potential for the field would explode if condensates could be made from fermions as well as bosons. For this reason, we were stunned and delighted to learn that Deborah Jin, Cindy Regal and Markus Greiner at the JILA aboratory in the Us have created the first fermionic condensate by cooling a gas of potassium atoms to nanokelvin temperatures(Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 040403). Known as"holy grail two"in the ultracold-matter community, fermionic condensates could have an enormous impact on other areas of physics as well A Bose-Einstein condensate is a peculiar phase of matter in which all the particles in a system occupy the same quantum state. However, this can only happen if the particles are bosons particles that have spins of h, 2h and so on, where h is Plancks constant divided Bose-Einstein condensates have been made from several different types of bosonic atoms, such as lbidium and sodium, by cooling the atoms to just above absolute zero Atoms like potassium-40, on the other hand, are forbidden by quantum mechanics from occupying the same state because they are fermions -particles with spins of h/2, 3h/2 and so on-and must therefore obey the Pauli exclusion principle. The only way to make a fermionic condensate is to try and persuade the fermionic atoms to form bosonic pairs. The pairing of electrons(which are fermions)to produce a condensate is a crucial feature of superconductivity, so a fermionic condensate would give us crucial insights into the mechanisms behind superconductivity, as well The magic technique To say that making a fermionic condensate is tough is to severely understate the experimental hallenges involved. The prospect of achieving it, however, was so exciting that it became the The first observation of degenerate Fermi gases was made by Jin and colleagues at JILA-which is run jointly by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology-in 1999. This ultracold result was very encouraging, but it was not quite cold enough To be precise, it was cold enough for the particles to display the effects of the exclusion principleFermionic first for condensates Physics in Action: March 2004 The creation of the first fermionic condensate will herald a new generation of research into the properties of superfluids and superconductors Cool customer Since the first gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate was created in 1995, the field of ultracold matter has developed rapidly. We all knew from the start, however, that the potential for the field would explode if condensates could be made from fermions as well as bosons. For this reason, we were stunned and delighted to learn that Deborah Jin, Cindy Regal and Markus Greiner at the JILA laboratory in the US have created the first fermionic condensate by cooling a gas of potassium atoms to nanokelvin temperatures (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 040403). Known as "holy grail two" in the ultracold-matter community, fermionic condensates could have an enormous impact on other areas of physics as well. A Bose-Einstein condensate is a peculiar phase of matter in which all the particles in a system occupy the same quantum state. However, this can only happen if the particles are bosons - particles that have spins of =, 2= and so on, where = is Planck's constant divided by 2π. Bose-Einstein condensates have been made from several different types of bosonic atoms, such as rubidium and sodium, by cooling the atoms to just above absolute zero. Atoms like potassium-40, on the other hand, are forbidden by quantum mechanics from occupying the same state because they are fermions - particles with spins of =/2, 3= /2 and so on - and must therefore obey the Pauli exclusion principle. The only way to make a fermionic condensate is to try and persuade the fermionic atoms to form bosonic pairs. The pairing of electrons (which are fermions) to produce a condensate is a crucial feature of superconductivity, so a fermionic condensate would give us crucial insights into the mechanisms behind superconductivity, as well as superfluidity. The magic technique To say that making a fermionic condensate is tough is to severely understate the experimental challenges involved. The prospect of achieving it, however, was so exciting that it became the goal of many groups around the world. The first observation of degenerate Fermi gases was made by Jin and colleagues at JILA - which is run jointly by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology - in 1999. This ultracold result was very encouraging, but it was not quite cold enough. To be precise, it was cold enough for the particles to display the effects of the exclusion principle