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This is the clearest ever image of individual atoms behaving like a wave, as predicted by quantum mechanics. Such images could eventually be used to study this exotic and poorly understood quantum behaviour.
The fact that particles like atoms can behave like waves is a key insight of quantum theory. One specific shape of wave that an atom can adopt is known as a “wave packet”, which is like a series of ripples that you may see on water, but far more bunched up and compressed.
Physicists can predict exactly how a wave packet will change over time by using an equation developed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. This makes analysing wave packets a great test object for how well an atom can be controlled and imaged in the quantum realm, says Tarik Yefsah at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the École normale supérieure in Paris. He and his colleagues did so in an experiment with extremely cold lithium atoms.
To put atoms in the quantum realm, the researchers had to make them nearly as cold as absolute zero. They placed lithium atoms in a small, airless chamber, then hit them with lasers and magnetic fields, which lowered their energy and made them cooler.
www.newscientist.com
The fact that particles like atoms can behave like waves is a key insight of quantum theory. One specific shape of wave that an atom can adopt is known as a “wave packet”, which is like a series of ripples that you may see on water, but far more bunched up and compressed.
Physicists can predict exactly how a wave packet will change over time by using an equation developed by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. This makes analysing wave packets a great test object for how well an atom can be controlled and imaged in the quantum realm, says Tarik Yefsah at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the École normale supérieure in Paris. He and his colleagues did so in an experiment with extremely cold lithium atoms.
To put atoms in the quantum realm, the researchers had to make them nearly as cold as absolute zero. They placed lithium atoms in a small, airless chamber, then hit them with lasers and magnetic fields, which lowered their energy and made them cooler.
Single atoms captured morphing into quantum waves in startling image
In the 1920s, Erwin Schrödinger wrote an equation that predicts how particles-turned-waves should behave. Now, researchers are perfectly recreating those predictions in the lab
