Study of ultracold atom by Optical tweezers (OT) (CAT#: STEM-MB-1329-WXH)

Name: Study of ultracold atom by Optical tweezers (OT)
SKU: STEM-MB-1329-WXH
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Introduction

Ultracold atoms are atoms that are maintained at temperatures close to 0 kelvin (absolute zero), typically below several tens of microkelvin (µK). At these temperatures the atom's quantum-mechanical properties become important.
Ultracold atoms have a variety of applications owing to their unique quantum properties and the great experimental control available in such systems. For instance, ultracold atoms have been proposed as a platform for quantum computation and quantum simulation, accompanied by very active experimental research to achieve these goals.

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Principle Applications Procedure Materials

Principle

Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to tweezers. If the object is held in air or vacuum without additional support, it can be called optical levitation.
The laser light provides an attractive or repulsive force (typically on the order of piconewtons), depending on the relative refractive index between particle and surrounding medium. Levitation is possible if the force of the light counters the force of gravity. The trapped particles are usually micron-sized, or even smaller. Dielectric and absorbing particles can be trapped, too.

Applications

• Optical tweezers are used in biology and medicine (for example to grab and hold a single bacterium, a cell like a sperm cell or a blood cell, or a molecule like DNA).
• Nanoengineering and nanochemistry (to study and build materials from single molecules).
• Quantum optics and quantum optomechanics (to study the interaction of single particles with light).