NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL): system development and ground test status

NPJ Microgravity
Ethan R ElliottDavid C Aveline

Abstract

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 87Rb, 39K, and 41K, 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 87Rb with microwave-based evaporation and the generation of ultracold dual-species quantum gas mixtur...Continue Reading

References

Nov 22, 2002·Physical Review Letters·G ModugnoM Inguscio
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May 16, 2007·Physical Review Letters·Savas DimopoulosMark A Kasevich
Jun 19, 2010·Science·T van ZoestJ Reichel
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Citations

Nov 9, 2019·Science·Victoria XuHolger Müller
Dec 10, 2019·NPJ Microgravity·N LundbladD C Aveline
Feb 26, 2020·Scientific Reports·D O SabulskyB Canuel
Jul 18, 2020·Physical Review Letters·A TononiL Salasnich
Jun 13, 2020·Nature·David C AvelineRobert J Thompson
Oct 20, 2018·Nature·Dennis BeckerErnst M Rasel
Nov 9, 2019·Physical Review Letters·A Tononi, L Salasnich
Jan 11, 2020·Physical Review Letters·G CondonA Landragin
Jun 13, 2020·Nature·Maike D Lachmann, Ernst M Rasel
Dec 9, 2020·Entropy·Santi Prestipino
Jul 17, 2021·Optics Express·Sean RavenhallChris Foot
Dec 21, 2021·Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Leonardo BadurinaVille Vaskonen

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
ISS
chip

Software Mentioned

ColdQuanta

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