Laser Cooling -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Physics

Uses momentum exchange between photons and atoms to reduce the velocity of atoms. It was proposed for neutral atoms in the mid-1970's by T. Hänsch and A. Schawlow, and for trapped ions by D. Wineland and H. Dehmelt. Without special techniques, however, the final spread in momentum was limited to , giving a temperature known as the single photon recoil temperature. Using special superposition states of atoms, however, C. Cohen-Tannoudji and others have been able to cool atoms more than 20 times below this limit in two and three dimensions (Lubkin 1996).

Cooling Force, Laser Trapping

References