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.
Using new techniques, Yale researchers have demonstrated the ability to use lasers to cool quantized vibrations of sound within massive objects to their quantum ground state, the lowest energy allowable by quantum mechanics. ...
Optics & Photonics
Aug 15, 2025
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The efficiency of quantum computers, sensors and other applications often relies on the properties of electrons, including how they are spinning. One of the most accurate systems for high-performance quantum applications ...
Quantum Physics
Jul 22, 2025
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There's a new record holder for the most accurate clock in the world. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have improved their atomic clock based on a trapped aluminum ion. Part of the ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 14, 2025
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Blink and you might miss it, but if you keep your eye on the monitors in professor Sebastian Will's lab, you'll catch a series of single-second flashes that light up the screen. Each flash is an atom of strontium, a naturally ...
Quantum Physics
Jun 26, 2025
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42
As the number of particles in a physical system increases, its properties can change and different phase transitions (i.e., shifts into different phases of matter) can take place. Microscopic systems (i.e., containing only ...
A research team led by Prof. Chang Hong from the National Time Service Center (NTSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a strontium optical lattice clock with both frequency stability and systematic uncertainty ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 12, 2025
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In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 11, 2025
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75
Adatoms are single atoms that get adsorbed onto the surface of a solid material and are known to hop randomly from one spot to another. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a group of scientists from Germany ...
Manuel Endres, professor of physics at Caltech, specializes in finely controlling single atoms using devices known as optical tweezers. He and his colleagues use the tweezers, made of laser light, to manipulate individual ...
Quantum Physics
May 22, 2025
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284
A team led by Prof. Zheng Tianlu and Prof. Wei Jiang from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), has developed a novel technique known as All-Optical Atom Trap Trace Analysis.
Earth Sciences
May 16, 2025
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