Atomlaser

An atom laser is the source of a coherent particle beam, consisting of atoms.

Forms the basis for an atom laser, the Bose -Einstein condensate, a cloud of identical bosonic atoms, all of which are located in the quantum mechanical ground state and are described by a common wave function. By a magnetic case, it is held in one place. By a radio frequency beam is a leak in the magnetic cage is generated and driven by the force of gravity from escaping a coherent material stream.

The term " atom laser " is somewhat misleading since, for a laser in the conventional sense emit electromagnetic radiation, and play no role for other conventional laser mechanisms, such as stimulated emission and population inversion in the atom laser.

Currently, atom lasers subject of basic research. Future applications could lie in the fields of atom interferometry, the nanostructuring and the precision of measurements.

The physicist Wolfgang Ketterle in 1997 realized the first time an atom laser.

• Quantum Optics