Atomic mirror
A single atom that acts like a mirror won’t do much for your personal hygiene. But it could lead to transistors for computers that use light instead of electricity to perform computations. Researchers in Austria trapped a single barium ion, cooled it with a laser and used it to replace one of the mirrors in a Fabry-Pérot interferometer — a device that filters or amplifies light by bouncing it between a pair of mirrors.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.