AMO is a slightly more general area than condensed matter physics, including related phenomena with smaller numbers atoms and optics. The two terms are however sometimes used as synonyms. The term AMO has gained wide usage and acceptability, see e.g.:
If Ciro had had greater foresight, this might have been what he studied at university!
Molecular beams are cool because they create a one dimensional flow of molecules, which makes it easier to observe certain single-molecule effects, as it removes the multi-particle issues from experiments.
Key molecular beam experiments include:
- Stern-Gerlach experiment, which confirmed the existence of spin
- Rabi's NMR experiment, which confirmed the existence of nuclear spin
The center piece of the control system of atomic clocks is a molecular beam.
