Laser cooling includes several techniques where atoms, molecules, and small mechanical systems are cooled with laser light. The directed energy of lasers is often associated with heating materials, e.g. laser cutting, so it can be counterintuitive that laser cooling often results in sample temperatures approaching absolute zero. It is routinely used in atomic physics experiments where the laser-cooled atoms are manipulated and measured. It is also used in technologies, such as atom-based quantum computing architectures.