Zeeman slower

Instrument for slowing and cooling a beam of hot atoms

In atomic physics, a Zeeman slower is a scientific instrument that is commonly used in atomic physics to slow and cool a beam of hot atoms to speeds of several meters per second and temperatures below a kelvin. The gas-phase atoms used in atomic physics are often generated in an oven by heating a solid or liquid atomic sample to temperatures where the vapor pressure is high enough that a substantial number of atoms are in the gas phase. These atoms effuse out of a hole in the oven with average speeds on the order of hundreds of m/s and large velocity distributions. The Zeeman slower is attached close to where the hot atoms exit the oven and are used to slow them to less than 10 m/s (slowing) with a very small velocity spread (cooling).

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