Abstract

Atomic physicists are well aware of the elegant and important measurements which have been made using ion traps. Now that neutral atoms can be trapped, the obvious question is, “will we succeed in doing such significant experiments with trapped atoms?” In this paper we present a review of the recent progress with atom traps and make projections for the future of the field. Our presentation is divided into the following sections: demonstrated atom traps, atomic collisions with cold trapped atoms, spectroscopy on trapped atoms, and schemes for getting trapped atoms much colder.

© 1988 Optical Society of America