(August 1 2016) A laser beam that attracts and traps quantum objects. It is not science fiction, but the result of the “Quantum coherent tractor beam effect for atoms trapped near a nanowaveguide” study recently appeared in Scientific Reports (Springer-Nature Publishing Group). Sandro Wimberger of the department of Physics and Earth Sciences of the University of Parma, in collaboration with two Japanese groups of the University of Tohoku and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, proposes the creation of a laser beam that attracts and retains very small elements, individual atoms or “condensate” of cold atoms. The concept of a “tractor beam” is well represented in science fiction movies in which a beam of light is used to trap and pull enemy spaceships. The originality of the work resides in the fact that this laser could control the atoms more easily and allow to study unknown quantum effects, on the same scale of the wavelength used to create the beam. Finally, one would see in a new form of interaction between light and matter, that is, between the light passing through the fiber and very close to the fiber atoms. (Red)
Italy and Japan together to achieve an “attractive” laser beam
