Scientists built an ultra sensitive force meter using a few atoms and measuring their doppler shift. Wow!
[The device] consists of a few dozen beryllium ions trapped in magnetic and electric fields using a device called a Penning trap. These ions vibrate at between a few mega and kilohertz, frequencies that can be accurately measured by bouncing laser light off the ions and measuring any Doppler shift they cause. Being charged, the ions are highly susceptible to the effects of stray magnetic and electric fields which change the frequency at which they vibrate.
See YoctoNewton Detector Smashes Force Measurement Record by The Physics arXiv Blog, April 8, 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment