Contact: Steve Bradt
steve_bradt@harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University
Caption: Launched laser-cooled atoms are captured by a single, suspended, single-wall carbon nanotube charged to hundreds of volts. A captured atom spirals towards the nanotube (white path) and reaches the environs of the tube surface, where its valence electron (yellow) tunnels into the tube. The resulting ion (purple) is ejected and detected, and the dynamics at the nanoscale are sensitively probed.
Credit: Anne Goodsell and Tommi Hakala/Harvard University
Usage Restrictions: None
Related news release: Cold atoms and nanotubes come together in an atomic 'black hole'