Development of a space cold atom clock

Wei Ren; Tang Li; Qiuzhi Qu; Bin Wang; Lin Li; Desheng Lü; Weibiao Chen; Liang Liu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwaa215

Development of a space cold atom clock

Natl Sci Rev. 2020 Aug 31;7(12):1828-1836. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa215. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Wei Ren¹, Tang Li¹, Qiuzhi Qu¹, Bin Wang¹, Lin Li¹, Desheng Lü¹, Weibiao Chen², Liang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Center of Cold Atom Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.
² Research Center of Space Laser Information Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.

Abstract

Atomic clocks with cold atoms play important roles in the field of fundamental physics as well as primary frequency standards. Operating such cold atom clocks in space paves the way for further exploration in fundamental physics, for example dark matter and general relativity. We developed a space cold atom clock (SCAC), which was launched into orbit with the Space Lab TG-2 in 2016. Before it deorbited with TG-2 in 2019, the SCAC had been working continuously for almost 3 years. During the period in orbit, many scientific experiments and engineering tests were performed. In this article, we summarize the principle, development and in-orbit results. These works provide the basis for construction of a space-borne time-frequency system in deep space.

Keywords: cold atom clock; fundamental physics; in orbit; microgravity.