“Although tractor beams are green or blue in the movies, in this case the trap is made of invisible infrared light,” Hilton said.
“The beam grabs hold of atoms that are floating in a chamber that is almost completely emptied of gas — a little sample of outer space on Earth.”
“Every atom that enters the tractor beam is pulled into the fiber — there is no escape. And once sucked into the interior of the optical fiber the atoms can be held for long periods of time.”
“Our experiments show that we can very precisely control light to produce exactly the right conditions to control atoms.”
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