Atom Optics Research Laser Cooling and 'Atom Optics' back to Prof. Roach's homepage . My research focuses on the interaction of very slowly moving atoms with magnetic surfaces and with light waves.
Slow atoms are interesting because they can exhibit what is called the 'wave nature' of matter.
In the early 20 th century, the French physicist Louis DeBroglie proposed that small pieces of physical matter, such as electrons, have an essential wave-like character that leads to some very curious properties. For example, a wave can spread out in space and different parts of a wave can interact with one another, leading to 'self-interactions' of objects, which in the case of electrons nicely explained the observed unusual behavior of electrons in atoms. However, DeBroglie also predicted that the length of the waves of an object grows as its velocity gets smaller. Thus very slow atoms have longer wavelengths, and the curious behavior this gives rise to can be more readily explored. The field of study of atom waves is called 'Atom Optics' in analogy with ordinary Optics that deals with the uses and properties of light waves.