FreezeRay (Compact laser cooled cold atom source)

在诺贝尔奖获得者发现激光可以将原子冷却到极低的温度后，人们对潜在的应用进行了大量研究。实验室的冷原子实验表明，与传统的原子钟相比，惯性导航精度提高了1000倍，计时提高了1000倍。为了将这些突破用于实际应用，必须将实验室实验开发成可以在卫星、飞机、轮船或医院中操作的实用设备。FreezeRay项目的目标是开发一种用于冷却原子的商业“一体化”系统。这将是冷原子系统的核心引擎，由一个紧凑的密封真空室和一个用于冷却原子的高度稳定的激光光源组成。该技术方法将利用为光通信开发的激光和放大器等组件技术，这些技术高度可靠，在恶劣环境下的工作寿命超过25年。

Following the Nobel Prize winning discovery that lasers can cool atoms to extremely low temperatures, where they can occupy a single quantum state, there has been a lot of research into potential applications. Laboratory experiments with cold atoms have shown a 1000 times improvement in inertial navigation accuracy and a 1000 times improvement in timing over conventional atomic clocks. For these breakthroughs to be exploited in real applications the laboratory experiments must be developed into practical devices that could be operated in a satellite, aircraft, ship or hospital The aim of the FreezeRay project is to develop a commercial “all-in-one” system for cooling atoms. This will be the core engine of a cold atom system and will consist of a compact sealed vacuum chamber and a highly stable laser source that will cool the atoms. The technical approach will draw on component technology such as lasers and amplifiers that have been developed for optical communications and are highly reliable with operating lifetime exceeding 25 years in harsh environments.