Scientists Split Atom, Then Put It Back Together

Mention words, "splitting the atom," and most people automatically think of nuclear fission, bombs and radioactivity.

Recently, , physicists at Germany's University of Bonn not managed to "split" an atom a different way -- using quantum mechanics -- but put it back together again.

"The fact that atoms, photons and molecules can split at different locations is something known," Andrea Alberti, team lead for the Bonn experiment and Alexander Humboldt fellow at the Institut für Angewandte Physik, told TechNewsWorld. "What is really exciting the level of quantum control and precision to we pushed our system."

The results of the experiment -- has potential ramifications for quantum computing and beyond -- were published recently in journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Two Places at Once

As of this new experiment, which amounts to what's known an "atom interferometer," scientists managed keep a single atom simultaneously in two places at separated by more 10 micrometers, or one hundredth of a millimeter. Then, they were able to put it back undamaged.

"We are capable trapping a single atom in a tiny box -- a box which is 0.020 micrometers size and created by laser fields -- and subsequently split the atom two boxes to reach separations to 10 micrometers," Alberti explained.

For an atom, 10 micrometers is enormous distance. To it in perspective, if the box were a glass of about 5 centimeters diameter, say, then the atom's two parts would have separated in two glasses 25 meters apart, he pointed .

The split was directly visible, however. If you tried to a picture, the atom would be seen in several images -- sometimes on the left, sometimes the right, but never in both places.

Nevertheless, it can proven by putting the atom back together, the scientists noted. In , differences between the magnetic fields of the two positions or accelerations of the atom discernible, since they become imprinted the atom's quantum mechanical state.

'A Split Personality'

Such quantum effects can only place at the lowest temperatures and careful handling. Specifically, the scientists involved used lasers to cool a cesium atom to a temperature a tenth of a million degrees above absolute zero and held it using another laser.

Next, they advantage of the fact that atoms have a spin that can go two directions simultaneously. Essentially, if the atom is moved by the second laser the right and the left at the time, it will split.

"The atom has kind of a split personality: of it is to the right, and half to the left, and yet, it is still whole," explained Andreas Steffen, lead author on the publication describing the experiment.


Adapted and abridged from: TechNewsWorld, June 15, 2012.