Post by Nokia Bell Labs

On this day in 1985, Bell Labs' Steven Chu (with fellow physicists Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips) published independent pioneering research on innovative methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light, also known as ‘optical molasses.' Chu's work builds upon the research of Bell Labs' Arthur Ashkin, who trail-blazingly invented the world's first methods for trapping small particles in a fluid using lasers. Chu's research would go on to win the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics, and Ashkin would receive his in 2018, becoming the oldest Nobel laureate at the time. #ThisDayInSTEM #STEM #Optical #Physics #BellLabs