(Phys.org) -- Take that, sports cars! Physicists at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can accelerate
their beryllium ions from zero to 100 miles per hour and stop
them in just a few microseconds. What's more, the ions come to a
complete stop and hardly feel the effects of the ride. And
they're not just good for submicroscopic racingNIST physicists
think their zippy ions may be useful in future quantum
computers. The ions (electrically charged atoms) travel 100
times faster than was possible before across a few hundred
micrometers in an ion trapa single ion can go 370 micrometers in
8 microseconds, to be exact (about 100 miles per hour.) Although
ions can go much faster in accelerators, the NIST ions
demonstrate precision control of fast acceleration and sudden
stops in an ion trap. A close analogy is a marble resting at the
bottom of a bowl, and the bowl suddenly accelerating (see
animation). During the transport, the marble will oscillate back
and forth relative to the center of the b