Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Almost absolute zero: the story of laser cooling and trapping

William D. Phillips

Published Jan 1, 1998• 2 citations

Abstract

Summary form only given. Laser light can exert a force on atoms so as to slow and cool them; sufficiently cold atoms can be held in electromagnetic bottles. This talk, based on the Nobel Lecture given in Stockholm in December 1997, describes the experiments at NIST-Gaithersburg that demonstrated the deceleration of atomic beams, trapping atoms in magnetic traps, and the achievement of temperatures much lower than had been thought possible eventually reaching below one microkelvin.

DOI: 10.1109/cleo.1998.676051

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