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Physical Review A

Dynamic equation for evaporative cooling of trapped atoms in microgravity

Xiaolong Yuan, Jiachen Yu, H. Li, Biao Wu, Wei Xiong, Xiaoji Zhou, Xuzong Chen

Published Apr 16, 2024• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, to investigate how atoms evaporate and cool in microgravity environments of the space station, we have developed the dynamic equation for evaporative cooling of trapped atoms and obtained the analytical expression of atomic temperature with respect to trapping laser parameters and gravitational acceleration. In our model, the evaporation of atoms is equivalent to applying a damping force to the trapped atoms, and the evaporative cooling process of trapped atoms is comprehended as the damped oscillation of trapped atoms in the optical dipole traps. By introducing the gravity in our model, we obtained the analytical model of temperature variation with gravity after cooling, and the theoretical results agree well with the evaporation experiment of rubidium-87 atoms on the ground. Our theoretical results show that, compared with the atomic evaporative cooling experiment on the ground, the microgravity environment of the space station can achieve cooler atomic gases when the losses of atoms, such as the one-body loss caused by background-gas collisions and the three-body recombination loss caused by interatomic inelastic collisions, can be ignored.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.109.043315

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National Science Review•Aug 29, 2022•14 citations
In this paper, to investigate how atoms evaporate and cool in microgravity environments of the space station, we have developed the dynamic equation for evaporative cooling of trapped atoms and obtained the analytical expression of atomic temperature with respect to trapping laser parameters and gravitational acceleration. In our model, the evaporation of atoms is equivalent to applying a damping force to the trapped atoms, and the evaporative cooling process of trapped atoms is comprehended as the damped oscillation of trapped atoms in the optical dipole traps. By introducing the gravity in our model, we obtained the analytical model of temperature variation with gravity after cooling, and the theoretical results agree well with the evaporation experiment of rubidium-87 atoms on the ground. Our theoretical results show that, compared with the atomic evaporative cooling experiment on the ground, the microgravity environment of the space station can achieve cooler atomic gases when the losses of atoms, such as the one-body loss caused by background-gas collisions and the three-body recombination loss caused by interatomic inelastic collisions, can be ignored.
Most cold atoms experiments in microgravity platforms or in Space are achieved using atom chips, leading to limitations in terms of optical access and inhomogeneous magnetic fields. Optical dipole traps do not have these drawbacks but have difficulties producing atomic samples with a large number of atoms at ultra low temperature in the absence of gravity. Here, we report on an efficient evaporative cooling in two-crossed laser beams during parabolic flights. Time-averaged potentials combine the advantages of large capture volume and trap compression, increasing the initial phase space density and collision rate to favor the evaporative process. With this technique we demonstrate the production of an ultra cold gas of 2.5×1042.5\times 10^42.5×104 rubidium atoms at a temperature below 100 nK in less than 4 seconds. Our experiment paves the way for the development of quantum sensors applied to fundamental physics and geodesy as well as the study of ultracold atomic physics in Space.
We study the dynamical evolution of cold atoms in crossed optical dipole trap theoretically and experimentally. The atomic transport process is accompanied by two competitive kinds of physical mechanics, atomic loading and atomic loss. The loading process normally is negligible in the evaporative cooling experiment on the ground, while it is significant in the preparation of ultra-cold atoms in the space station. Normally, the atomic loading process is much weaker than the atomic loss process, and the atomic number in the center region of the trap decreases monotonically, as reported in previous research. However, when the atomic loading process is comparable to the atomic loss process, the atomic number in the center region of the trap will initially increase to a maximum value and then slowly decrease, and we have observed the phenomenon first. The increase of atomic number in the center region of the trap shows the presence of the loading process, and this will be significant especially under microgravity conditions. We build a theoretical model to analyze the competitive relationship, which coincides with the experimental results well. Furthermore, we have also given the predicted evolutionary behaviors under different conditions. This research provides a solid foundation for further understanding of the atomic transport process in traps. The analysis of loading process is of significant importance for the preparation of ultra-cold atoms in a crossed optical dipole trap under microgravity conditions.
Abstract We study the dynamical evolution of cold atoms in crossed optical dipole trap theoretically and experimentally. The atomic transport process is accompanied by two competitive kinds of physical mechanics, atomic loading and atomic loss. The loading process normally is negligible in the evaporative cooling experiment on the ground, while it is significant in preparation of ultra-cold atoms in the space station. Normally, the atomic loading process is much weaker than the atomic loss process, and the atomic number in the central region of the trap decreases monotonically, as reported in previous research. However, when the atomic loading process is comparable to the atomic loss process, the atomic number in the central region of the trap will initially increase to a maximum value and then slowly decrease, and we have observed the phenomenon first. The increase of atomic number in the central region of the trap shows the presence of the loading process, and this will be significant especially under microgravity conditions. We build a theoretical model to analyze the competitive relationship, which coincides with the experimental results well. Furthermore, we have also given the predicted evolutionary behaviors under different conditions. This research provides a solid foundation for further understanding of the atomic transport process in traps. The analysis of loading process is of significant importance for preparation of ultra-cold atoms in a crossed optical dipole trap under microgravity conditions.
In microgravity environments, the evaporative cooling time required to prepare a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in a crossed optical dipole trap is significantly longer than that observed in ground-based experiments using identical apparatus. This slowdown arises from the simultaneous decrease in both trap depth and trap frequency of the trap under microgravity conditions, which results in an extended duration necessary for achieving thermal equilibrium. To address this issue, we propose incorporating a saddle-shaped blue-detuning light field to create a composite optical trap. This approach effectively mitigates the decline of trap frequency while simultaneously reducing the depth of the composite trap, thereby facilitating rapid evaporative cooling. Numerical simulations indicate that this strategy allows the atomic phase-space density to approach the Bose–Einstein condensation threshold in less than 4 s under microgravity. Such performance represents an order-of-magnitude improvement in the evaporative cooling rate of optical dipole traps operating in microgravity. This advancement not only facilitates rapid BEC preparation under orbital conditions but also opens new avenues for analogous experiments in ground-based drop towers.
Evaporative cooling under microgravity is investigated in the free-fall experiment of 87{}^{87}87Rb atoms optically trapped from a temporarily dark magneto-optical trap in the drop tower in Bremen. The efficiency of evaporation is determined to be equal, with and without the effect of gravity.
The invention of laser cooling has fundamentally influenced the research frontier of atomic physics and quantum physics, and recently an intense focus has been on the studies of cold atom physics in microgravity environments. Herein, we report the results of our laser cooling experiment in TianGong-2 space lab, which operated for 34 consecutive months in orbit. Over such an extended operation time, the quality of laser cooling did not experience any significant decline, while the properties of laser cooling in orbital microgravity were systematically studied. In particular, we demonstrate magneto-optical trapping and polarization-gradient cooling in orbit and carefully examine their performances. A comparison of the in-orbit and on-ground results indicates that a higher cooling efficiency exists in microgravity, including a smaller loss rate during the trapping and cooling process and lower ultimate temperature of laser-cooled atoms. Our progress has laid the technical foundations for future applications of cold atoms in space missions with operation times of the order of years.