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Cold-Atom Lab in a Box

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John Cowley for ColdQuanta Inc.

Bringing cold atoms to the classroom gives undergraduate students a hands-on way to learn about physics – and could inspire lifetime careers using photonics to manipulate atoms. Bringing cutting-edge physics into the undergraduate classroom is not always easy. “Cold atoms” (<0.0003 K) were first produced in the late 1980s, but creating the right conditions for them still requires research specialists in advanced physics laboratories. Re-creating the original experiment that led to the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics (which went to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and...Read full article

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    Published: July 2011
    Glossary
    laser cooling
    A process and method by which manipulation and orientation of a given number of directed laser beams decreases the motion of a group of atoms or molecules such that their internal thermodynamic temperatures reach near absolute zero. The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.
    nano
    An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
    quantum entanglement
    Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics where two or more particles become correlated to such an extent that the state of one particle instantly influences the state of the other(s), regardless of the distance separating them. This means that the properties of each particle, such as position, momentum, spin, or polarization, are interdependent in a way that classical physics cannot explain. When particles become entangled, their individual quantum states become inseparable,...
    quantum optics
    The area of optics in which quantum theory is used to describe light in discrete units or "quanta" of energy known as photons. First observed by Albert Einstein's photoelectric effect, this particle description of light is the foundation for describing the transfer of energy (i.e. absorption and emission) in light matter interaction.
    AmericasAndrew M.C. Dawesanisotropic atom cloudsatom cloudatom number measurementatomic clocksatomic physicsBasic Sciencecold atomscold-atom cloudsColdQuantacollege physicsColoradoFeaturesHeather LewandowskiindustrialJohn Cowleylaser coolinglensesmagnetic trappingmagneto-optical trapminiMOTminiMOT kitmirrorsMOTnanoNational Science FoundationOpticsOregonPacific Universityphysics educationquantum entanglementquantum opticsRainer Kunzrubidium atomsSensors & DetectorsSteven Chuundergraduate physicsUniversity of Colorado at BoulderLasers

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