Magnetic trap (atoms)

Although such traps have been employed for many purposes in physics research, they are best known as the last stage in cooling atoms to achieve Bose–Einstein condensation.

The field minima required for magnetic trapping can be produced in a variety of ways.

In the first approximation, magnitude (but not orientation) of the magnetic field is responsible for effective energy of the trapped atom.

Ways of transferring atoms and/or q-bits between traps are under development; the adiabatic optical (with off-resonant frequencies) and/or the electrical control (with additional electrodes) is assumed.

However, laser cooling is limited by the momentum recoils an atom receives from single photons.