This spring brings another development in AMO physics. A German research team reports successfully carrying out atom interferometry in a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a microgravity environment using sounding rockets.

 Interferometry uses the interaction of waveforms to make ultrafine measurements. We do this routinely in demonstrations using light waves, but atom interferometry uses the wavelike characteristics of atoms themselves.

 

Read more:

 

Lachmann et al (2021), Ultracold atom interferometry in space, Nature Communications 12

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21628-z

 

Padavic-Callaghan (2021), Ultracold Quantum Collisions Have Been Achieved in Space for the First Time, Scientific American

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ultracold-quantum-collisions-have-been-achieved-in-space-for-the-first-time/

 

Dataset for the manuscript "Ultracold atom interferometry in space" at Leibniz Universität Hannover

https://data.uni-hannover.de/dataset/08b693d2-bf35-4d6b-8914-d3a7c41f5489