Momentum filtering scheme of cooling atomic clouds for the Chinese Space Station

Abstract

To obtain cold atom samples with temperatures lower than 100 pK in the cold atom physics rack experiment of the Chinese Space Station, we propose to use the momentum filtering method for deep cooling of atoms. This paper introduces the experimental results of the momentum filtering method verified by our ground testing system. In the experiment, we designed a specific experimental sequence of standing-wave light pulses to control the temperature, atomic number, and size of the atomic cloud. The results show that the momentum filter can effectively and conveniently reduce the temperature of the atomic cloud and the energy of Bose – Einstein condensation, and can be flexibly combined with other cooling methods to enhance the cooling effect. This work provides a method for the atomic cooling scheme of the ultra-cold atomic system on the ground and on the space station, and shows a way of deep cooling atoms.