Cooling and trapping is a set of experimental techniques used to reduce the kinetic energy of particles, typically atoms or ions, and confine them spatially for precision measurements and quantum control. Laser cooling methods, such as Doppler and sub-Doppler cooling, use resonant light to induce momentum exchange that lowers atomic velocities, while magneto-optical traps (MOTs) combine inhomogeneous magnetic fields with polarized light to provide both cooling and restoring forces. Additional mechanisms, including evaporative cooling and optical or electromagnetic trapping potentials, further reduce temperatures toward the quantum degenerate regime, enabling studies of ultracold gases, atomic clocks, quantum simulation, and controlled quantum information processing.
Cooling atomic gases to the quantum regime often involves time-consuming steps. Electromagnetically induced transparency now achieves quantum degeneracy with high efficiency.
Quantum Physics
Nov 18, 2024
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A team led by Prof. Lu Zhengtian and Researcher Xia Tian from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) realized a Schrödinger-cat state with minute-scale lifetime using optically trapped cold atoms, significantly ...
Optics & Photonics
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An experimental setup built at the Technion Faculty of Physics demonstrates the transfer of atoms from one place to another through quantum tunneling between optical tweezers. Led by Prof. Yoav Sagi and doctoral student Yanay ...
Quantum Physics
Nov 11, 2024
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Antimatter might sound like something out of science fiction, but at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD), scientists produce and trap antiprotons every day. The BASE experiment can even contain them for more than a year—an ...
General Physics
Oct 28, 2024
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A team of physicists led by Johannes Zeiher, research group leader in Immanuel Bloch's Quantum Many-Body Systems department and co-founder of the MPQ spin-off planqc, has achieved significant progress in scaling up quantum ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 9, 2024
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Most atoms are made from positively charged protons, neutral neutrons and negatively charged electrons. Positronium is an exotic atom composed of a single negative electron and a positively charged antimatter positron. It ...
General Physics
Sep 11, 2024
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Researchers in the Neutral Atom Optical Clocks Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Colorado and Pennsylvania State University recently devised a new sub-recoil Sisyphus cooling ...
Many quantum devices, from quantum sensors to quantum computers, use ions or charged atoms trapped with electric and magnetic fields as a hardware platform to process information.
Quantum Physics
Aug 22, 2024
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NASA's Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space. Members of the science team measured subtle ...
General Physics
Aug 13, 2024
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Why does the universe contain matter and (virtually) no antimatter? The BASE international research collaboration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, headed by Professor Dr. Stefan Ulmer from ...
Quantum Physics
Aug 2, 2024
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