PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 18 August 2006 http://focus.aps.org/

PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 18 August 2006 http://focus.aps.org/
David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society

Introductions to the Focus stories of the past week;
visit http://focus.aps.org for the complete story.

ATOMS FEEL THE BEAM
When an atom emits or absorbs a photon of light, it recoils
very slightly. Now a report in the 18 August PRL explains that
the recoil depends not only on the photon's energy, but also on
the width of the laser beam containing it. So a centimeter-wide
beam can have effects at the atomic scale. Though tiny, the effect
could become important as physicists seek to improve further the
accuracy of ultraprecise measuring devices that rely on light-atom
interactions
(Kurt Gibble, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 073002)
Link to the paper: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v97/e073002
COMPLETE Focus story at http://focus.aps.org/story/v18/st5

Also from PRL and Physical Review (story from AIP's Physics News Update):

ATOMS IN A TRAP MEASURE GRAVITY AT THE MICRON LEVEL
story at http://www.aip.org/pnu/2006/split/788-1.html
(Ferrari et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 060402)

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Copyright 2006, The American Physical Society.
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