Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter-matter and light-matter interactions; at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO theory includes classical, semi-classical and quantum treatments. Typically, the theory and applications of emission, absorption, scattering of electromagnetic radiation (light) from excited atoms and molecules, analysis of spectroscopy, generation of lasers and masers, and the optical properties of matter in general, fall into these categories. Atomic physics is the subfield of AMO that studies atoms as an isolated
Evaporative cooling (atomic physics) group of Randall G. Hulet for lithium. Since then the technique has been improved upon, notably by Bouyer's team at Groupe d'Optique Atomique Laboratoire at the Charles Fabry Optical Institute. Evaporative cooling (atomic physics) Evaporative cooling is an atomic physics technique to achieve high phase space densities which optical cooling techniques typically can not reach. Atoms trapped in optical or magnetic traps are cooled as the trap depth is decreased and the hottest atoms (with the highest kinetic energy) leave the trap. The hot atoms leaving the trap are on the tail of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and therefore carry away