Pathfinder experiments with atom interferometry in the Cold Atom Lab onboard the International Space Station.

Deployment of ultracold atom interferometers (AI) into space will capitalize on quantum advantages and the extended freefall of persistent microgravity to provide high-precision measurement capabilities for gravitational, Earth, and planetary sciences, and to enable searches for subtle forces signifying physics beyond General Relativity and the Standard Model. NASA's Cold Atom Lab (CAL) operates onboard the International Space Station as a multi-user facility for fundamental studies of ultracold atoms and to mature space-based quantum technologies. We report on pathfinding experiments utilizing ultracold Rb atoms in the CAL AI.

Quantum gas mixtures and dual-species atom interferometry in space.

The capability to reach ultracold atomic temperatures in compact instruments has recently been extended into space. Ultracold temperatures amplify quantum effects, whereas free fall allows further cooling and longer interactions time with gravity-the final force without a quantum description. On Earth, these devices have produced macroscopic quantum phenomena such as Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), superfluidity, and strongly interacting quantum gases.

Quantum Rotation Sensing with Dual Sagnac Interferometers in an Atom-Optical Waveguide.

We describe a Sagnac interferometer suitable for rotation sensing, implemented using an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic magnetic trap. The atom wave packets are split and recombined by standing-wave Bragg lasers, and the trapping potential steers the packets along circular trajectories with a radius of 0.2 mm.

A cylindrically symmetric magnetic trap for compact Bose-Einstein condensate atom interferometer gyroscopes.

We present a variant of the time-orbiting potential trap suitable for Bose-Einstein condensate atom interferometers, which provides weak, cylindrically symmetric confinement as well as support for the atoms against gravity. This trapping configuration is well-suited for the implementation of a compact atom interferometer based gyroscope. The trap is made up of six coils, which were produced using photolithographic techniques and take up a modest volume of approximately 1 cubic inch inside a vacuum chamber.

Fast phase stabilization of a low frequency beat note for atom interferometry.

Atom interferometry experiments rely on the ability to obtain a stable signal that corresponds to an atomic phase. For interferometers that use laser beams to manipulate the atoms, noise in the lasers can lead to errors in the atomic measurement. In particular, it is often necessary to actively stabilize the optical phase between two frequency components of the beams.