Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Degenerate Bose-Fermi gases in microgravity

Waldemar Herr, Tim van Zoest, Naceur Gaaloul, Yeshpal Singh, Henning Ahlers, Stephan Seidel, Ernst Maria Rasel, Wolfgang A. Ertmer, Kai Bongs, Thorben Könemann, Hauke Müntinga, Wiebke Brinkmann, Cláus Lämmerzahl, H. Dittus, E. Kajari, R. Walser, Wolfgang P. Schleich, Anika Vogel, K. Sengstock, Wojciech Lewoczko-Adamczyk, Max Schiemangk, Achim Peters, T. Steinmetz, Jakob Reichel

Published Jun 1, 2009• 0 citations

Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Bose Einstein condensates (BEC) opened the way for realization of atomic ensembles with Heisenberg limited uncertainty. In microgravity extremely dilute samples of BEC can be obtained and observed after a free evolution on timescales of seconds. Applications range from atom optics to matter wave interferometry. This has led us to realize a BEC of 10000 87Rb atoms in microgravity. The experimental results (to be published) establish the fact, that in a microgravity environment ultra-large condensates (Icircosl.5 mm) after a free evolution of 1 second can be observed. In particular, microgravity provides mass independent confining potential which is very important for the research on a mixture of quantum gases. We aim to realize a new setup for multispecies experiments, which can be used in catapult mode doubling the time for microgravity to 9 seconds. The experiment is planned to use87Rb and40K as degenerate Bose and Fermi gases respectively and can be used to carry out experiments on interferometry, Bose-Fermi mixtures and tests of the weak equivalence principle in quantum domain. Up to date progress and future prospects of this ambitious and technically challenging project will be presented.

DOI: 10.1109/cleoe-eqec.2009.5194129

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