Atomic beams shoot straighter via cascading silicon peashooters
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 14:20
in Physics & Chemistry
Atomic beams conjure fantasies of gigantic Space Force canons. But there are real tiny atomic beams that shoot out of newly engineered collimators, a kind of tiny silicon peashooter, that could land in handheld devices. The beams streaming out of them create precise inertia much better than a gyroscope's that could help spacecraft navigate the solar system. The atomic beams from the new collimators could also let physicist cheaply and easily produce exotic quantum mechanical states.