NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL): system development and ground test status.
| Autor: | Elliott ER; 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA., Krutzik MC; 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA.; 2Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstr. 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany., Williams JR; 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA., Thompson RJ; 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA., Aveline DC; 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | NPJ microgravity [NPJ Microgravity] 2018 Aug 21; Vol. 4, pp. 16. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Aug 21 (Print Publication: 2018). |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41526-018-0049-9 |
| Abstrakt: | We report the status of the Cold Atom Lab (CAL) instrument to be operated aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Utilizing a compact atom chip-based system to create ultracold mixtures and degenerate samples of 87 Rb, 39 K, and 41 K, CAL is a multi-user facility developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to provide the first persistent quantum gas platform in the microgravity conditions of space. Within this unique environment, atom traps can be decompressed to arbitrarily weak confining potentials, producing a new regime of picokelvin temperatures and ultra-low densities. Further, the complete removal of these confining potential allows the free fall evolution of ultracold clouds to be observed on unprecedented timescales compared to earthbound instruments. This unique facility will enable novel ultracold atom research to be remotely performed by an international group of principle investigators with broad applications in fundamental physics and inertial sensing. Here, we describe the development and validation of critical CAL technologies, including demonstration of the first on-chip Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of 87 Rb with microwave-based evaporation and the generation of ultracold dual-species quantum gas mixtures of 39 K/ 87 Rb and 41 K/ 87 Rb in an atom chip trap via sympathetic cooling. Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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