Laser cooling and trapping of atoms
Enfriamiento y atrapamiento de átomos con láser
- Date
- 1985-1988 · confidence high
- Place
- Bell Labs, Holmdel, New Jersey, United States
- Credited to
- Steven Chu; Claude Cohen-Tannoudji; William Phillips
- People
- 👤 Claude Cohen-Tannoudji1933–👤 Steven Chu1948–👤 William Phillips1914–1975
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
The radiation pressure of detuned lasers slows atoms down to microkelvin temperatures ('optical molasses'), and magneto-optical traps confine them. It opens access to ultracold matter and the manipulation of individual atoms.
1997 Nobel Prize for Chu, Cohen-Tannoudji and Phillips; Cohen-Tannoudji's Sisyphus cooling explained temperatures below the Doppler limit.
What it led to
- Bose-Einstein condensate (1995)
- Fountain and optical atomic clocks
- Atom interferometry and gravimetry
- Quantum simulation with atoms in optical lattices
Built on
- Doppler effect1842
- Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases1995
- Hänsch and Schawlow's proposal (1975)
- Tunable lasers
Made possible
- Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases1995
- Caesium fountain clock
- Magneto-optical trap
- Neutral-atom quantum computers