Steven Chu developed methods for cooling and manipulating neutral chemical atoms with light. His optical-trapping work showed how a tightly focused beam could confine dielectric particles through the balance of optical gradient force and optical scattering force.[ref]
With Mark Kasevich, he also demonstrated an atom interferometer using stimulated Raman transitions. Laser pulses split and recombined atomic matter waves, converting a relative path phase into a measurable internal-state population. These experiments use optical momentum transfer as a tool for both manipulation and precision measurement.[ref]
Portrait of Steven Chu
. United States Department of Energy; individual photographer not identified. Public domain in the United States as a federal employee’s official-duty work. Source usage terms, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.
Steven Chu is an American physicist and Nobel laureate known for his work in the fields of physics and energy. He was born on February 28, 1948. Chu is particularly renowned for his research in laser cooling and trapping of atoms, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, shared with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips.
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