The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001

Left: Ketterle’s first atom laser. Centre and right: later results from other laboratories.

Web Adapted Version of the Nobel Poster from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

  The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001  
 

 

 
 
The atomic laser

When the laser was invented some forty years ago, no-one envisaged its many areas of application today. A laser emits coherent light; could coherent matter be utilised in similar ways? Can a laser be built to emit matter instead of light?
    Ketterle’s group was first to produce pulses of coherent matter – the equivalent of a pulsed laser beam but for matter: an atom laser beam.
 
 

Contents:
| Introduction – Atoms in unison | Particles or Waves? Both! | Cold… | …colder… | …coldest! | Large condensates and interference patterns | The atomic laser | Further reading | Credits |

Based on materials from the 2001 Nobel Poster for Physics
 

To cite this section
MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach 2026. Thu. 13 Aug 2026. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2001/9870-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2001-2001-10/>

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