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Single proton cooled by distant ions

Laser-cooled ions have been used to substantially lower the temperature of a proton located several centimetres away. This technique could be useful in ultraprecise measurements of the properties of antimatter particles.
  1. Manas Mukherjee

    1. Manas Mukherjee is at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 117543 Singapore, and at the Center for Quantum Engineering Research and Education, Kolkata, India.

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In a paper in Nature, Bohman et al.1 (the BASE Collaboration) report the cooling of a single proton by a cloud of laser-cooled beryllium ions. Remarkably, the ions were separated from the proton by a distance of about 9 centimetres — which is too far apart for the charges on the ions to have interacted with that of the proton. This means that the ions could not have exerted a direct cooling effect on the proton. Instead, the researchers used an indirect cooling process, mediated by an electric circuit that established an effective interaction. This approach has potential applications in studies of antimatter particles and in the field of quantum information.

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Nature 596, 490-491 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02267-2

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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