Harvard team uses laser to cool polyatomic molecule – Harvard Gazette

The use of lasers to control and atoms and molecules the eventual building blocks of quantum computers has been practiced since the 1960s and has since revolutionized atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
The technique essentially works by firing a laser at the atoms and molecules, causing them to absorb the photons from the light and recoil in the opposite direction. This eventually slows them down and even stops them in their tracks. When this happens, quantum mechanics becomes the dominant…

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