SOME PROBLEMS IN COLD ATOM RESEARCH

Chongming Yang

C. N. Yang

Chongming Yang

Lin LI, Bin Wang, Xiaoji Zhou +3 more

The China Space Station (CSS) provides an ideal experimental platform for researching and applying ultracold atoms in microgravity. On 31 October 2022, the Cold Atom Physics Research Rack (CAPR) was launched to the CSS together with the Mengtian lab module, designed by the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIOM) and Peking University. The main goal of the CAPR is to build an ultracold atomic physics experiment platform using 87Rb Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) in the CSS. In microgravity, ultracold atoms can be cooled to picokelvin (pK) via Two-Stage Crossed Beams Cooling (TSCBC), which is three orders of magnitude lower than on earth and can inspire the novel physical phenomena. The preparation of the BEC and the deep cooling are introduced in this paper, as well as a series of advancements in ultracold atoms in microgravity. The CAPR is an experimental platform that relies on evaporative cooling in a crossed optical dipole trap. Furthermore, the CAPR’s design scheme and ground verification experiment are also introduced. So far, the CAPR has continued to conduct research on ultracold atoms in microgravity, with more than two years of uninterrupted operation in orbit. Up to now, preliminary experimental results have been achieved, realizing the primary purpose of the CAPR.

Jean Dalibard, Christophe Salomon

Wei Chun-hu

With the progress of laser cooling and other atom optics technologies, the cold atom interferometry gyroscope based on cold atom wave is developing rapidly, and it promises to be a novel gyroscope technology in inertial navigation areas. The research status of cold atom interferometry gyroscope and the principle of atom interferometry are introduced, and a comparative analysis of the characteristics among the three distinct types of cold atom interferometry gyroscopes in Stanford University, Observatoire de Paris and Hanover University is carried out. The improving schemes and developing prospects of cold atom interferometry gyroscope are discussed by focusing on its current limitations, aiming at its wider application in inertial navigation fields.