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A flourine-rich crystal with thorium-229 atom trapped inside
A highly transparent, flourine-rich crystal in which a thorium-229 atom is trapped. Researchers bombarded the crystal with lasers, successfully getting the atom's nucleus to absorb and emit photons and raising its energy state.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants PHY 2013011, PHY 2207546 and OSI 2016245.]
Learn more in the NSF Discovery Files story Physicists' laser experiment excites atom's nucleus, may enable new type of atomic clock. (Date of image: Unknown; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 2, 2024)
Credit: David Esquivel/UCLA
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