Science Communication
Seeing atoms with the naked eye
Teaching quantum mechanics can be challenging and doing so in a hands-on manner is even more so. In partnership with the Swiss Science Center Technorama, we are developing an exhibit, which will allow members of the public, teachers, and students to experience a truly quantum mechanical system – single atoms – firsthand. We use barium ions, whose emission wavelength of 493 nm is nearly at the peak of the spectral sensitivity of the human eye, confined in a linear Paul trap that has been optimized for optical access and photon collection efficiency. The setup is robust, compact, and mobile, using a minimum of moving parts, and is comprised primarily of fiber optic components.
This setup allows visitors to experience two phenomena, the ability to see single atoms by eye, and to observe the truly quantum random decay from a dark metastable excited state to the fluorescing ground state with the push of a button. Teachers will also be able to use this exhibit in the classroom and workshops at Technorama to allow students to measure the dark state lifetime of the barium ions. The exhibit affords us unique opportunities to engage with the public and share our research on trapped ions. We are interested in exploring how these and other experiences can be used to improve the way we approach science communication.
The exhibit has been open to the public since January 2022, with over 1000 visitors in its first month of operation. Further testing and design modifications will take place until August 2022 to achieve a stand-alone “Atomic Experience”.
This work is supported internally by ETH and by an SNF Agora grant.
