WORLDTECHChina's orbital lab cools rubidium atoms and tracks them for seven seconds
Researchers aboard China's space station followed a rubidium atom cloud for seven seconds after letting it go from a laser trap, according to a single outlet's report.
Orbital trial forms a condensate
Using the weightlessness of orbit, the team produced and handled a Bose–Einstein condensate, a state in which atoms act together as one quantum wave. The cloud was held in a trap of focused laser beams before its release.
Why the work moved to orbit
On the ground, gravity drags atoms downward inside a trap, so they slip away as the confinement weakens. Magnetic levitation can offset that pull, but only when the atoms share the same internal spin state, and a laser trap offers more room to set those states.
Earlier experiments had already given atoms short spells of free fall, and the orbital study extends that line of work.
Open questions
- Which follow-up experiments the new platform will enable is not described in the report?