(IMAGE)
Caption
Cooling down an ion crystal: a cloud of magnesium (blue spheres) and magnesium ions (tied blue and green spheres) is confined between the four cylindrical electrodes of a Paul trap. A laser, depicted in this image as a bright transparent strip in the center, cools the ions so that they solidify into a Coulomb crystal. When helium atoms (purple), which flow into the trap, collide with magnesium hydride ions, the rotation of the latter slows down -- the rotation temperature drops.
Credit
Alexander Gingell/Aarhus University
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