Optical Interaction Science

Optical Cooling and Trapping

This group is concerned with the physics of laser cooling, electromagnetic trapping and other radiative manipulation of neutral atoms and dielectric particles. These fundamental studies are used to develop applications to new kinds of physics measurements and processes.

Get Involved

Optical Cooling and Trapping (OT)

This group is concerned with the physics of laser cooling, electromagnetic trapping and other radiative manipulation of neutral atoms, ions, dielectric particles and nanostructures. These fundamental studies are used to develop applications to new kinds of physics measurements and processes, such as high-resolution spectroscopy, atomic clocks, atomic collisions, atom optics, biomolecular interactions and atomic-scale and nanoscale fabrication. Basic studies involve Bose-Einstein condensates, cold collisions, optical lattices, optomechanics and soft-matter interactions.