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| Research Award Winners 2004 |
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 | | Mark Kasevich, Professor for Physics at Stanford University in California has been selected as the winner of the 2004 Carl Zeiss Research Award for his research work on precision atom interferometers.
Interferometry is a known phenomenon, primarily from optics, in which light waves can be so superimposed that the crests and troughs of their waves mutually cancel each other out or amplify each other. Atom interferometry uses an effect that has been known since 1924 – that atoms can also behave like waves. This has been used in measuring machines for many years.
Atomic waves can increase measuring accuracy a thousand times over compared to light waves as their wave lengths are significantly shorter. Mark Kasevich has been involved in atom interferometry for more than 10 years.
The first atom interferometer was built in 1991 by researchers from the University of Constance, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the German National Metrology Institute and Stanford University. Steven Chu and Mark Kasevich developed a new atom interferometer several months later at Yale University.
Mark Kasevich succeeded in dramatically increasing the precision into the extreme by using laser-cooled, ultra-cold (almost absolute zero) atoms. Thus, a process was developed to measure acceleration with maximum accuracy; a process that will not only be used in basic research. It also presents interesting perspectives for technical applications – for navigation or measuring rock formations during development of mineral and oil deposits. |
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