Colder: how physicists beat the theoretical limit for laser cooling and laid the foundations for a quantum revolution – Physics World physicsworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from physicsworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Today's dip into the cold-atom toolbox is to explain the real workhorse of cold-atom physics, the magneto-optical trap. This is the technology that really makes laser cooling useful, by letting you collect massive numbers of atoms at very low temperatures and moderate density.