Abstract
Experimentation with single “live” atomic particles — ions — has turned real a few years ago /1/. Precondition for this achievement was the development of techniques for storage and detection of small ion clouds, and in particular for damping the ion motion in the trap: optical cooling was predicted for free /2/ and bound particles /3/ in 19 75 and subsequently observed /4,5/. This development has been crucial for an attempt to get evidence of and insight into a concept which is intrinsic to BOHR’s successful model of the hydrogen atom /6/: instantaneous transitions between energy eigenstates of an atom upon interaction with light, which have been labelled “quantum jumps”. The early controversy on that, as it seemed, awkward concept subsided: quantum mechanics turned out a story of overwhelming success after all, and repeatable experimenting with single atoms was considered unthinkable, anyway. As for traces in bubble chambers and on photographic plates, Erwin SCHRÖDINGER rightfully cautioned: “In the first place it is fair to state that we are not experimenting with single particles , any more than we can raise Ichthyosauria in the zoo, We are scrutinising records of events long after they have happened… ” /7/.
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Sauter, T., Neuhauser, W., Blatt, R., Toschek, P.E. (1987). Quantum Jumps and Related Phenomena of Single Ions and Small Ion Clouds. In: Persson, W., Svanberg, S. (eds) Laser Spectroscopy VIII. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 55. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-47973-4_32
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