Recent Press Releases
Stopping Atoms
IOPP
PR35(07)
Tue, 2 October 2007
With atoms and molecules in a gas moving at thousands of kilometres per hour, physicists have long sought a way to slow them down to a few kilometres per hour to trap them.
A paper, published today in the Institute of Physics’ New Journal of Physics, demonstrates how a group of physicists from The University of Texas at Austin, US, have found a way to slow down, stop and explore a much wider range of atoms than ever before.
Inspired by the coilgun that was developed by the University’s Center for Electromechanics, the group has developed an "atomic coilgun" that slows and gradually stops atoms with a sequence of pulsed magnetic fields.
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.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. For further information and a full PDF of the article, please contact:
Joe Winters, Press Officer,
Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London. W1B 1NT Telephone +44 (0)20 7470 4815.
E-mail: joseph.winters@iop.org
2. The paper "An Atomic Coilgun: Using Pulsed Magnetic Fields to Slow a Supersonic Beam" (New J. Phys. 10 358 (2007)) will be freely available to download from Wednesday 3 October at
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1367-2630/9/10/358
3. New Journal of Physics, co-owned by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society, is an open-access, electronic-only journal covering the whole of physics. All content is permanently free to read at http://www.njp.org
4. The Institute of Physics is a scientific membership organisation devoted to increasing the understanding and application of physics. It has an extensive worldwide membership (currently over 34,000) and is a leading communicator of physics with all audiences from specialists through government to the general public. Its publishing company, Institute of Physics Publishing, is a world leader in scientific publishing and the electronic dissemination of physics and the electronic dissemination of physics.
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