Atomic laser

An atomic laser is the source of a coherent particle beam made up of atoms .

The basis for an atomic laser is the Bose-Einstein condensate , a cloud of identical, bosonic atoms, which are all in the quantum mechanical ground state and are described by a common wave function . It is held in one place by a magnetic trap . A radiofrequency beam creates a leak in the magnet cage and, driven by gravity, a coherent beam of matter escapes.

The term “atomic laser” is somewhat misleading because, on the one hand, lasers in the traditional sense emit electromagnetic radiation and, on the other hand, conventional laser mechanisms such as stimulated emission and population inversion do not play a role in atomic lasers.

Atomic lasers are currently the subject of basic research . Future applications could be in the areas of atomic interferometry, nanostructuring and precision measurements.

The physicist Wolfgang Ketterle first realized an atomic laser in 1997.