Light-pulse atom interferometry in microgravity

Stern, Guillaume; Battelier, Baptiste; Geiger, Rémi; Varoquaux, Gaël; Villing, André; Moron, Frédéric; Carraz, Olivier; Zahzam, Nassim; Bidel, Yannick; Chaibi, W.; Santos, F. Pereira Dos; Bresson, Alexandre; Landragin, Arnaud; Bouyer, Philippe

doi:10.1140/epjd/e2009-00150-5

Cited by 70 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In order to cool and manipulate 87 Rb, we need a laser source emitting at 780 nm. We have chosen to take advantage of existing fiber optics components in the telecom C-band around 1.5 µm, and generate the final optical frequency by Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) [12,13]. This way, we have a setup which is almost entirely fibered and therefore immune to vibration-induced misalignments.…”

Section: B Laser Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

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A transportable cold atom inertial sensor for space applications

Ménoret

Geiger

Stern

et al. 2017

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2010

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I. INTRODUCTIONAtom interferometry has hugely benefitted from advances made in cold atom physics over the past twenty years, and ultra-precise quantum sensors are now available for a wide range of applications [1]. In particular, cold atom interferometers have shown excellent performances in the field of acceleration and rotation measurements [2,3], and are foreseen as promising candidates for navigation, geophysics, geo-prospecting and tests of fundamental physics such as the Universality of Free Fall (UFF). In order to carry out a test of the UFF with atoms as test masses, one needs to compare precisely the accelerations of two atoms with different masses as they fall in the Earth's gravitational field. The sensitivity of atom interferometers scales like the square of the time during which the atoms are in free fall, and on ground this interrogation time is limited by the size of the experimental setup to a fraction of a second. Sending an atom interferometer in space would allow for several seconds of excellent free-fall conditions, and tests of the UFF could be carried out with precisions as low as 10 -15 [4]. However, cold atoms experiments rely on complex laser systems, which are needed to cool down and manipulate the atoms, and these systems are usually very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and vibrations. In addition, when operating an inertial sensor, vibrations are a major issue, as they deteriorate the performances of the instrument. This is why cold atom interferometers are usually used in ground based facilities, which provide stable enough environments. In order to carry out airborne or space-borne measurements, one has to design an instrument which is both compact and stable, and such that vibrations induced by the platform will not deteriorate the sensitivity of the sensor.We report on the operation of an atom interferometer on board a plane carrying out parabolic flights (Airbus A300 Zero-G, operated by Novespace). We have constructed a compact and stable laser setup, which is well suited for onboard applications. Our goal is to implement a dual-species Rb-K atom interferometer in order to carry out a test of the UFF in the plane. In this perspective, we are designing a dual-wavelength laser source, which will enable us to cool down and coherently manipulate the quantum states of both atoms. We have successfully tested a preliminary version of the source and obtained a double species magneto-optical trap (MOT).

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Section: B Laser Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…3. Compact laser source [13]. A Distributed feedback (DFB) fibered laser diode at 1560 nm is frequencydoubled in pigtailed PPLN waveguide, and the resulting 780 nm light is used to stabilize the laser on a Rb transition.…”

Section: B Laser Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

A transportable cold atom inertial sensor for space applications

Ménoret

Geiger

Stern

et al. 2017

International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2010

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“…The programmatics of European space atom interferometers, as proposed for STE-QUEST strongly builds on the different national and European-wide activities in this direction, in particular the Space Atom Interferometer (SAI) [26] and the nationally funded projects QUANTUS [27] and ICE [28]. In these activities innovative technologies are developed and tested in parabolic flights, drop tower campaigns and sounding rocket missions.…”

Section: Payloadmentioning

confidence: 99%

STE-QUEST mission and system design

Hechenblaikner¹,

Hess²,

Vitelli³

et al. 2014

Exp Astron

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STE-QUEST is a fundamental science mission which is considered for launch within the Cosmic Vision programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Its main scientific objectives relate to probing various aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity by measuring the gravitational red-shift of the earth, the moon and the sun as well as testing the weak equivalence principle to unprecedented accuracy. In order to perform the measurements, the system features a spacecraft equipped with two complex instruments, an atomic clock and an atom interferometer, a ground-segment encompassing several ground-terminals collocated with the best available ground atomic clocks, and clock comparison between space and ground via microwave and optical links. The baseline orbit is highly eccentric and exhibits strong variations of incident solar flux, which poses challenges for thermal and power subsystems in addition to the difficulties encountered by precise-orbit-determination at high altitudes. The mission assessment and definition phase (Phase-A) has recently been completed and this paper gives a concise overview over some system level results.

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“…Microgravity offers several fundamental advantages to the study of cold atoms that has sparked a growing interest [46][47][48] and high profile experimental efforts [49][50][51]. Most prominently, ultracold atoms released into microgravity enables interrogation and observation times orders of magnitude longer than their earthbound counterparts, even in a compact setup, laying the foundation for the next generation of space-based atom interferometer sensors applicable to both fundamental and applied physics [52][53][54].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced association and dissociation of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules in a microgravity environment

et al. 2017

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We study the association and dissociation dynamics of weakly bound heteronuclear Feshbach molecules using transverse RF-fields for expected parameters accessible through the microgravity environment of NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) aboard the International Space Station, including temperatures at or below nK and atomic densities as low as 10 8 /cm 3 . We show that under such conditions, thermal and loss effects can be greatly suppressed resulting in high efficiency in both association and dissociation of Feshbach molecules with mean size exceeding 10 4 a0, and allowing for the coherence in atom-molecule transitions to be clearly observable. Our theoretical model for heteronuclear mixtures includes thermal, loss, and density effects in a simple and conceptually clear manner. We derive the temperature, density and scattering length regimes of 41 K-87 Rb that allow optimal association/dissociation efficiency with minimal heating and loss to guide future experiments with ultracold atomic gases in space.

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Light-pulse atom interferometry in microgravity

Cited by 70 publications

References 33 publications

A transportable cold atom inertial sensor for space applications

A transportable cold atom inertial sensor for space applications

STE-QUEST mission and system design

Enhanced association and dissociation of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules in a microgravity environment

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