The next generation of ultra-small electronic devices seems to be under development - The refrigerators made from light capable of cooling atoms to the lowest temperature are to be used by physicists at The University of Nottingham.
The £6million new Midlands Ultracold Atom Research Centre will be created by the academics, in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Birmingham. It will be funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). To cool atoms to a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, the scientists will use laser beams.
When the atoms are cooled down to these temperatures, they slow down and change their behavior, thus, enable scientists harness this area of quantum physics for a range of novel uses!
The atom-chips can be used in building high-precision sensors into a range of electronic devices, which could eventually be applied in many fields like — in
* high-precision navigation,
* underground mapping,
* oil prospecting and
* high-performance computers.
