The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Artist’s impression of the setup. The incoming and diffracted beams (red) overlap in the blue volume. The atoms are cooled and collected in a small dense cloud (small blue dots).
A two-dimensional grating is realised by a regular array of raised circles. The period of this is 1080 nm resulting in a diffraction angle of 46°. A single input beam perpendicular to the surface results in four diffracted beams overlapping in the blue translucent volume. In this region the thermal atoms are slowed to an almost complete halt by the light. With the addition also of a magnetic quadrupole field the atoms collect in a small dense cloud in the centre.