The Ultracold Atoms and Plasmas Group studies ultracold neutral plasmas and ultracold atomic gases. Both experiments start with laser-cooled and trapped neutral strontium. Laser-cooling is a powerful technique for producing and trapping atoms at temperatures as low as one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. Under these exotic conditions, matter behaves in fundamentally different ways, and the exploration of this regime teaches us about the basic laws of nature and lays the foundation for powerful new technological advances.

In early March 2011, the Killian lab moved to Brockman Hall, Rice's new physics building. Click here to view the video "Moving Giant Laser Table Intact", a high point of the move.

Physics article on Bose-Einstein condensation of 84-Sr Phys. Rev. Lett., "Bose-Einstein Condensation of 84-Sr" (2009) Phys. Rev. Lett., "Degenerate Fermi Gas of 87-Sr" (2010)	Deep Freezing Plasmas, a profile and video of the ultracold plasmas experiment. Physics Today article on Ultracold Neutral Plasmas(2010) Phys. Rev. Lett., "Velocity Relaxation in a Strongly Coupled Plasma"(2012)