Controlling Atoms with Light (IMAGE)

University of Chicago

Controlling Atoms with Light

Caption

This image shows how a laser (yellow) can affect collisions between atoms (red spheres). The blue spheres depict a molecule. The laser leaves the energy of single atoms unaffected, as represented by the red surface. But the laser lowers the energy of the molecules, leading to the cup-shape of the blue surface. The stronger the laser, the more the two atoms attract each other if they collide inside the laser beam.

Credit

Chin Group/University of Chicago

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News organizations may use this image in connection with reports about the work of Cheng Chin and Logan Clark and their associates.

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