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Laser particle acceleration

Pushing atoms with light

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Controlling the velocity of neutral particles is an experimental challenge, owing to their absence of charge. Scientists have now demonstrated a technique that can be used to accelerate neutral argon atoms by polarizing them in moving optical lattices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Andreas Osterwalder is at the Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland,

    Andreas Osterwalder

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  1. Andreas Osterwalder
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Correspondence to Andreas Osterwalder.

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Osterwalder, A. Pushing atoms with light. Nature Photon 6, 346–348 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.115

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