Mainz 2017 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 6: Quantum Gases: Bosons I
Q 6.1: Talk
Monday, March 6, 2017, 14:30–14:45, P 204
The Space Atom Laser - A novel 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
The atom laser [1] is a unique device among the broad variety of applications of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) and transfers magnetically trapped atoms to an untrapped state. On ground the outcoupled atoms are dragged down by gravity resulting in an accelerated, directed beam. In microgravity, however, there is no favored direction and the only driving force of the dynamics is the repulsive interaction between the particles. Thus, the outcoupled atoms propagate away from the remaining trapped atoms and form a slowly expanding shell.
We present a 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 find a suitable scheme for an experimental implementation aboard the ISS using NASAs Cold Atom Laboratory we have thoroughly studied this process with the help of numerical simulations based on coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations.
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.
[1] Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 582 (1997); Science 283, 1706 (1999); Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3008 (1999);