'Radio Wave Cooling' Offers New Twist on Laser Cooling

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NIST physicists used radio waves to cool this silicon micro-cantilever the narrow orange strip across the middle of this colorized micrograph. The cantilever created by ion etching through a silicon wafer lies parallel to a silicon radio-frequency el ...
NIST physicists used radio waves to cool this silicon micro-cantilever, the narrow orange strip across the middle of this colorized micrograph. The cantilever, created by ion etching through a silicon wafer, lies parallel to a silicon radio-frequency electrode. Credit: J. Britton/ NIST

Visible and ultraviolet laser light has been used for years to cool trapped atoms—and more recently larger objects—by reducing the extent of their thermal motion. Now, applying a different form of radiation for a similar purpose, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have used radio waves to dampen the motion of a miniature mechanical oscillator containing more than a quadrillion atoms, a cooling technique that may open a new window into the quantum world using smaller and simpler equipment.


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