Atom Laser :
Researchers have solved the puzzle to keep the most powerful beam of light long-lasting.
But how long exactly?
A team of researchers (physicists) from the University of Amsterdam has created an atom laser that can stay on forever, atom laser varies from the common laser, though they both emit a focused light beam, the atom laser works on the concept of the Bose-Einstein Condensate [BEC].
The first Bose-Einstein Condensate was created around 25 years ago in a controlled laboratory that enabled the researchers to create an atom laser having the ability to emit beams of matter.
However, these lasers could not hold on for long as the device needed a new BEC after deploying a pulse of matter. This problem plagued the researchers for 25 long years.
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Bose-Einstein Condensates are delicate in nature and get obliterated on light’s contact. But, BECs also need the same light for formation.
Due to this complexity, the Bose-Einstein Condensates could only be made in little quick bursts. And now the researchers revealed that they found a solution to this prolonged problem.
The research report of Atom Laser was published in Nature.
“In previous experiments, the gradual cooling of atoms was all done in one place. In our setup, we decided to spread the cooling steps, not over time, but in space: we make the atoms move while they progress through consecutive colling steps,” said team leader Florian Schreck on Atom Lasers.
Physicists have developed a new way to create eternal matter waves. The core particles as of humans’ understanding come in 2 varieties – bosons and fermions with opposite natures.
Fermions are hard, and Bosons are soft enabling them to move through each other effortlessly (i.e Photon, the smallest known quantity of light).
These bosons have unique behavior that can make the particles condense in a coherent wave. And the obtaining formation of matter particles is known as Bose-Einstein Condensate.
“The ultra cold atoms arrive at the heart of the experiment at the end where they can be used to make coherent matter waves in a BEC for Atom Laser,” Schreck added.
“In this way, we can keep the process going – essentially forever.”
If this technology of Atom Laser is achieved with stability, it would open up a new stream of technological applications.
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