Editing Laser cooling (section)

=== Initial realizations ===
Following the laser cooling proposals, in 1978 two research groups that Wineland, Drullinger and Walls of NIST, and Neuhauser, Hohenstatt, Toscheck and Dehmelt of the University of Washington succeeded in laser cooling atoms. The NIST group wanted to reduce the effect of Doppler broadening on spectroscopy. They cooled magnesium ions in a Penning trap to below 40&nbsp;K.  The Washington group cooled barium ions.  

Influenced by the Wineland's work on laser cooling ions, [[William Daniel Phillips|William Phillips]] applied the same principles to laser cool neutral atoms. In 1982, he published the first paper where neutral atoms were laser cooled.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Phillips |first1=William|author-link =William Daniel Phillips|title=Laser Deceleration of an Atomic Beam |journal=Physical Review Letters |date=1 March 1982 |volume=48 |issue=9 |pages=596–599 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.596 |bibcode=1982PhRvL..48..596P |doi-access=free }}</ref> The process used is now known as the [[Zeeman slower]] and is a standard technique for slowing an atomic beam.

The 1997 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] was awarded to [[Claude Cohen-Tannoudji]], [[Steven Chu]], and [[William Daniel Phillips]] "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light".<ref>{{cite web | title = The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997 | publisher = Nobel Foundation | url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/index.html | access-date = 9 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081007171154/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/index.html | archive-date = 7 October 2008 | url-status = live }}</ref>