HOW do you trap an atom? Make it look at itself in a mirror. That’s the odd conclusion from physicists who used an atom’s mirror image to freeze it in place. But the result is not just a curiosity – the mechanism gives physicists perhaps their best means yet of controlling the motion of trapped atoms.
Physicists have been using light to hold atoms in place since the 1970s. For instance, so-called optical tweezers work by using lasers to create an interference pattern of light and dark fringes. Atoms can be trapped in the “wells” of low energy, much like eggs…
