The researchers report finding a way to use lasers to form walls that allow atoms and molecules to pass through in one direction, but do not allow them to return.

The technique might lead to advances in atomic clocks, which are used to standardize time.

Dr. Mark Raizen of the university's Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and his colleagues described the one-way wall technique in Physical Review Letters and Europhysics Letters published earlier this year.

Raizen's one-way wall extends the capabilities of laser and evaporative cooling, which have been limited to cooling a small number of atoms in the periodic table.

"The beauty of the one-way atomic wall," Raizen said, "is that there is almost no increase in kinetic energy."

With no increase in kinetic energy comes no increase in heat. By expanding and contracting the space holding the trapped atoms and molecules, the temperature can be lowered to near absolute zero.

It's at such ultra cold temperatures - minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit - that quantum physicists can manipulate atoms and molecules.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at University of Texas
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Space Technology News - Applications and Research