雷射冷却是指运用一道或多道雷射将原子、分子冷却的技术。 第一个这方面的技术是都卜勒冷却，同时也是最为普遍使用的技术（甚至时常就称之为雷射冷却）。

都卜勒冷却通常是使用磁场的束缚力产生一个磁光陷阱，是目前最普遍使用的雷射冷却技术。 它能将低密度的气体温度降至都卜勒冷却极限，以铷 85 为例约 150 mK。 由于都卜勒冷却使用上需要一个特殊的能阶结构，这个方法只能适用于某些元素。

Laser cooling refers to a number of techniques in which atomic and molecular samples are cooled down to near absolute zero through the interaction with one or more laser fields. All laser cooling techniques rely on the fact that when an object (usually an atom) absorbs and re-emits a photon (a particle of light) its momentum changes. The temperature of an ensemble of particles is larger for larger variance in the velocity distribution of the particles. Laser cooling techniques combine atomic spectroscopy with the aforementioned mechanical effect of light to compress the velocity distribution of an ensemble of particles, thereby cooling the particles.