Dr. Mark Raizen and his colleagues in Texas ultimately plan on using
the gun to trap atomic hydrogen, which he said has been the Rosetta
Stone of physics for many years and is the simplest and most abundant
atom in the periodic table.
Work on slowing and stopping atoms has been at the forefront of
advancement in physics for some time. In 1997, there were three
joint-winners for the Nobel Prize in Physics for their combined
contribution to laser cooling - a method using laser light to cool
gases and keep atoms floating or captured in "atom traps".
These important advances had limited use because they only applied to
atoms with 'closed two-level transition', excluding important elements
such as hydrogen, iron, nickel and cobalt. In contrast, nearly all
elements and a wide range of molecules are affected by magnetic
forces, or are paramagnetic, which means that this latest research has
much wider applicability.
Professor Raizen said, "Of particular importance are the doors being
opened for our understanding of hydrogen. Precision spectroscopy of
hydrogen's isotopes, deuterium and tritium, continues to be of great
interest to both atomic and nuclear physics. Further study of tritium,
as the simplest radioactive element, also serves as an ideal system
for the study of Beta decay. "
Having successfully designed and used an 18-coil device to slow a
supersonic beam of metastable neon atoms, the team is now developing a
64-stage device to further slow and stop atoms.
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