Contact: Michael Baum
michael.baum@nist.gov
301-975-2763
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Bon MOT: Innovative Atom Trap Catches Highly Magnetic Atoms

Caption: Trapped erbium: Color-enhanced image of a cloud of erbium atoms trapped and cooled and a narrow-line MOT using a single laser beam. The laser beam is coming down from the top of the image, which measures about 1 millimeter square. The atoms collect along the ellipse of a constant magnetic field (dashed line) where they come into resonance with the laser. A faint cloud of residual, higher temperature atoms caught in the magnetic trap can be seen as well.

Credit: Credit: Berglund/NIST

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