Question

In laser cooling, atoms can be slowed down by momentum transfer.

Laser cooling relies on the change in momentum when an object, such as an atom, absorbs and re-emits a photon (a particle of light).

There was even a Nobel Prize for this.

The 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Steven Chu, and William Daniel Phillips for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.

Can you also manipulate a single electron (or an electron cloud) using this method?

Answer 1

Laser cooling is a technique that slows down atoms using photons, based on the principles of quantum physics. While mostly applied to neutral atoms, similar principles can theoretically be applied to single electrons or an electron cloud regarding momentum conservation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question pertains to the manipulation of atoms and possibly electrons using laser cooling, a technique that involves slowing down particles using momentum transfer from absorbed and re-emitted photons. The process of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, or laser, was developed upon the foundations of quantum physics and has led to numerous applications, including the precise control of atoms' temperatures and velocities.

When it comes to manipulating a single electron or an electron cloud with laser cooling, it's a more complex issue due to the differences in mass and charge distribution compared to neutral atoms. However, similar principles of momentum conservation, as observed in Compton scattering, are foundational in quantum mechanics and can apply to interactions between light and charged particles such as electrons.