Cold Atoms in Bordeaux

We have recently started operating our 0g-simulator which gives access to microgravity in the laboratory. The first results are very promising : for now we have an ultra-cold atomic source in 0g of some 10,000 atoms at a temperature below 100nK, which we are able to reproduce every 15 seconds. We expect soon to get the quantum degeneracy by minimizing atom losses during the trajectory of the engine. To be continued... #ICE

We recently obtained the first BEC on ICE, through an all optical cooling setup, in one chamber. The atom sample is composed of about 50.000 atoms and the critical temperature is 150nK. This represents a significant progress towards improving our interferometer in microgravity. Next step is to test the setup on the 0g simulator ! #ICE

Our ZERO-G simulator allows us to launch our 200 kg Cold atom sensor in our lab and gives us access to 500 ms of microgravity every 12 s, in a highly repeatable way. It consists in reproducing a perfect parabola trajectory by controlling and servo locking the position of the experiment thanks to laser rulers and vibrations-free displacement systems. We expect to increase the interrogation time and the sensitivity of our instrument and consequently reach a level of 10-11 for t

We present an all-optical technique to prepare a sample of 39K in a magnetically insensitive state with 95% purity while maintaining a temperature of 6 μK. This versatile preparation scheme is particularly well suited to performing matter-wave interferometry with species exhibiting closely separated hyperfine levels, such as the isotopes of lithium and potassium, and opens new possibilities for metrology with these atoms. We demonstrate the feasibility of such measurements by

The ICE Team is excited to announce that our article Dual matter-wave inertial sensors in weightlessness was published in Nature Communications today. It describes recent experiments we carried out onboard the Novespace "Zero-G" aircraft with simultaneous cold-atom interferometers of rubidium and potassium, where we achieved the first test of the weak equivalence principle in a free-falling vehicle. #ICE #CAB