NSF Award
2207476
Ultracold quantum gases can now be confined and manipulated with exquisite precision using laser light. When these gases are squeezed into thin, horizontal sheets they can be confined into various shapes within the sheet such as rings and disks. Cooling these confined gases to near absolute zero can cause them to transition to a state where the quantum (i.e. wave-like) natures of all the gas atoms lock together and become identical and thus act as one. Such a state is called a "Bose-Einstein condensate" (BEC) and a system in this state can display ultra-sensitivity to the acceleration and rotation of its environment. This research will investigate how such systems, called "atomtronic systems," can therefore be used as rotation and acceleration sensors. In particular this work will investigate how keeping such systems at low but non-zero temperatures can be used to enhance their performance as sensors. Fundamental studies will also be carried out to understand the thermodynamics of these gases and this knowledge will be used to inform the sensor performance studies. This work will be performed by a team of researchers at Georgia Southern University and at the Joint Quantum Institute housed at the University of Maryland, College Park. This work will be performed in partnership with ColdQuanta, Inc. ColdQuanta provides cold-matter technology to government and academics. They have donated time on their "Albert" quantum matter machine to facilitate these studies. The societal benefit of this work will be to improve sensors for precision navigation applications that are essential to commercial travel and the US national defense.<br/><br/>The Intellectual Merit of this project has two areas. In the first area the effects of finite temperature on the operation of atomtronic quantum sensors and interferometers will be studied. Atomtronic precision navigation ideas such as double-ring BECs accelerometers, double-target BEC array rotation sensors, dual-Sagnac atom interferometer (AI) rotation sensors, and large-ring BEC waveguides will be investigated. Simulations will be performed of their operation with a variety of non-equilibrium finite-temperature models. These models will investigate how the presence of a thermal cloud might be used to enhance sensor operation. In the second area fundamental studies of the quantum thermodynamics (QT) of systems in the QT "Sandbox" will be performed. The QT Sandbox is a quasi-2D gas containing one or more BECs created in various potentials at different temperatures that can be stirred, phase-imprinted, moved into and out of contact, and probed. Studies include thermalization of shaken/stirred/phase-imprinted finite-temperature BECs; how to probe thermal characteristics systems by imaging; how to build traditional thermodynamic systems such as heat engines and refrigerators; how atomtronic thermometers can be constructed; and finally the thermodynamics of transport of atomtronic systems. This project will also provide two undergraduate physics majors at Georgia Southern University with research experiences in cutting-edge, ultracold-atom research. Students will also be able to collaborate with scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute. They will also develop ways of using the Georgia Southern University planetarium and virtual-reality headsets for visualizing, analyzing, and presenting data obtained from simulations of atomtronic sensors and interferometers.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
