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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

High-Speed Optical Diagnostics of a Supersonic Ping-Pong Cannon
Published on: March 24, 2023
Coherent slowing of a supersonic beam with an atomic paddle
E Narevicius1, A Libson, M F Riedel
1Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Abstract:
We report the slowing of a supersonic beam by elastic reflection from a receding atomic mirror. We use a pulsed supersonic nozzle to generate a 511+/-9 m/s beam of helium that we slow by reflection from a Si(111)-H(1x1) crystal placed on the tip of a spinning rotor. We were able to reduce the velocity of helium by 246 m/s and show that the temperature of the slowed beam is lower than 250 mK in the comoving frame.
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