Abstract: Ultra-cold quantum gases promise to boost the sensitivity and accuracy of inertial matter-wave interferometers. Applications of these sensors extend from fundamental physics over the use in navigation to interdisciplinary applications such as geodesy. Space is a unique environment for sounding out the ultimate precision of these sensors, which might be beneficial for e.g. satellite gravimetry. Exploiting quantum gases for high-precision interferometry places high demands on their control and manipulation. We take benefit of various microgravity platforms such as the Bremen drop tower, the Einstein elevator in Hannover, sounding rockets and the international space station to advance the necessary methods. The DLR-mission MAIUS-1 demonstrated Bose-Einstein condensation and performed first interferometry experiments during the space travel of a sounding rocket. NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory continues this research in orbit on the ISS.

Starting from a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate, recently lowest expansion energies have been achieved by us in the Bremen drop tower as required for extending atom interferometry over several seconds. These quantum-gas sources reach the performance as required for inertial quantum sensors proposed for satellite gravimetry. Indeed, the EU project CARIOQA-PMP develops an engineering model taking heritage of our source concept for a pathfinder mission towards quantum-sensor based satellite gravimetry.

Bio: Ernst M. Rasel is a full professor at the Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) and the Leibniz faculty for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research (QUEST-LFS). He received his PhD in 1996 from the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck for the demonstration of an atom interferometer based on diffraction gratings made of light in the group of A. Zeilinger. He cooperated during his postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris with M. Leduc and Cohen-Tannoudji on Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable helium. 1999 he joined the group of W. Ertmer at the institute of quantum optics (LUH) as research assistant and started his own group at LUH and the excellence cluster QUEST and later Quantum Frontiers working in the field of atom optics, interferometry and frequency metrology. His research is fundamental to developing technologies that leverage quantum mechanics for improved performance.

He has been part of initiatives that extend quantum experiments into space. Such experiments take advantade of microgravity environments to explore quantum phenomena in wavs that are not possible on Earth. This includes involvement in projects like the MAIUS mission, which successfully demonstrated creation of and interferometry with Bose-Einstein condensates in space, paving the way for advanced precision measurement tools for fundamental physics and applied sciences.