Erlangen 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 38: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics I
Q 38.2: Poster
Dienstag, 6. März 2018, 16:15–18:15, Orangerie
The Space Atom Laser - An isotropic source for ultra-cold atoms in microgravity — •Matthias Meister, Albert Roura, Wolfgang P. Schleich, and The QUANTUS Team — Institut für Quantenphysik and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST), Universität Ulm, D-89069 Ulm
Atom laser experiments based on magnetically trapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) performed on ground allow to create an accelerated, directed beam of atoms due to gravity. In microgravity, on the other hand, the dominant force acting on the outcoupled atoms is the repulsive interaction between the particles resulting in a slowly expanding three-dimensional shell. Remarkably, this outcoupled shell possesses a fairly isotropic distribution in position and momentum even when the initial BEC was trapped in an elongated, anisotropic trap.
We present a realistic protocol that allows the generation of such an unusual arrangement of atoms in microgravity by applying radio frequency outcoupling methods to a magnetically trapped BEC. In order to pave the way for its experimental implementation in NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory on the ISS, we have thoroughly studied this process numerically including experimental imperfections like fluctuating particle numbers or instabilities of the magnetic trap.
The QUANTUS project is supported by the German Space Agency DLR with funds provided by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) under grant number 50WM1556.