laser trap

1. A device that uses magnetic coils and lasers with tunable frequencies to suspend atoms or particles in a small region of space and to slow them down, reducing their temperature. Laser traps have been used to form Bose-Einstein condensates.

Example Sentences

To look for nonlinearities in King plots in the two new studies, both teams used a similar approach: The researchers placed a single atom in a laser trap to hold it in place.

Read more on Scientific American

The cooling was achieved by using lasers to slow the particles until they were confined in a laser trap, less than 100 microns across.

Read more on The Guardian

When the atoms were released from the laser trap, they expanded, with some displaying negative mass.

Read more on BBC