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.
Scientists have created 3D printed surfaces featuring intricate textures that can be used to bounce unwanted gas particles away from quantum sensors, allowing useful particles like atoms to be delivered more efficiently, ...
Quantum Physics
Jan 22, 2026
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37
At the Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck, a research team has succeeded for the first time in storing electrically charged helium nanodroplets in an ion trap for up to one minute.
Nanophysics
Jan 20, 2026
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319
Researchers at the ArQuS Laboratory of the University of Trieste (Italy) and the National Institute of Optics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-INO) have achieved the first imaging of individual trapped cold atoms ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 23, 2025
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140
Scientists have made leaps and bounds in bending atoms to their will, making them into everything from ultraprecise clocks to bits of quantum data. Translating these quantum technologies from obedient atoms to unruly molecules ...
General Physics
Dec 18, 2025
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62
Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have shown that quantum sensors can remain highly accurate even in extremely noisy conditions. It's the first experimental realization of a powerful quantum sensing protocol, outperforming ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 1, 2025
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54
Optical lattice clocks are devices that measure the passing of time via the frequency of light that is absorbed or emitted by laser-cooled atoms trapped in a repeating pattern of light interference known as optical lattice.
Physicists from Swansea University have played the leading role in a scientific breakthrough at CERN, developing an innovative technique that increases the antihydrogen trapping rate by a factor of ten.
General Physics
Nov 18, 2025
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990
Researchers from Hanns-Christoph Nägerl's group have produced the world's first ultracold KCs molecules in their absolute ground state. Starting by mixing clouds of potassium and cesium atoms cooled almost to absolute zero ...
Condensed Matter
Nov 17, 2025
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75
Researchers from the Department of Molecular Physics at the Fritz Haber Institute have demonstrated the first magneto-optical trap of a stable "closed-shell" molecule: aluminum monofluoride (AlF). They were able to cool AlF ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 10, 2025
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84
From the burning of wood to the action of medicines, the properties and behavior of matter are governed by the way chemical elements bond with one another. For many of the 118 known elements, the intricate electronic structures ...
General Physics
Nov 3, 2025
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60
