Physics of ultracold atoms in Russia: development and co-ordination

Research on the physics of ultracold atoms in Russia has deep and rich traditions. It began almost immediately after the advent of lasers, whose light made it possible to effectively act on the translational degrees of freedom of atoms and ions through resonant light pressure. Work in this direction was begun by Petr Lebedev (light pressure experiments). The pioneering contribution made by Russian scientists to this area of physics is generally acknowledged. It is sufficient to note the world's first experiments on the laser cooling of neutral atoms carried out at the Institute of Spectroscopy (IS), USSR Academy of Sciences, by a team headed by Letokhov and Balykin. A considerable contribution to the theory of the mechanical action of light on atoms was made by Kazantsev, Minogin, Surdutovich, Yakovlev and other Russian scientists.