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I worked for the Quantum Optics lab at Georgia Tech for a summer back in 2012.  One of my assignments was to build a "macro" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_trap#Paul_ion_trap|Paul trap]] capable of trapping charged styrofoam or corn starch using oscillating electrostatic fields.  Styrofoam, as it turns out, is somewhatever heavier and more variable in mass that corn starch, making it more difficult to trap.  Therefore, I built a trap for corn starch.  

The trap shown in the image below is referred to as a linear Paul trap.  The glowing red dots are trapped corn starch grains that are reflecting laser light (to better see the corn starch).  The corn starch had been in the trap about a week when the photograph was taken.  

{{ :projects:2012:paultrap:paultrap.jpg?nolink&600 |}}

The picture isn't a particularly good one, and I'll put up a better picture if I can find it.  

References
  * [[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1989/paul/lecture/|Paul's Nobel lecture]]
  * [[https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.16830|Good article]]

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