Quantum gases below 10 picokelvin in space
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Updated: Nov 7, 2026

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Wei Xiong1, Tang Li2, Shengjie Jin3
1School of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
Ultracold atom platforms enable low temperatures and long free evolution times, which are crucial for fundamental physics tests and atom interferometry. The lowest equivalent temperature reported in such a system is 38 pK with a free expansion time of 2 s, achieved in atom-chip-based magnetic traps in microgravity. Optical dipole trap (ODT) systems offer better optical access and the flexibility to condense both magnetic and non-magnetic atoms, but have not been used to prepare quantum degenerate gases under microgravity conditions. Here we report an ODT-based Bose-Einstein condensate created aboard the China Space Station, containing 2.0 × 104 atoms, reaching an equivalent temperature of [Formula: see text] pK with a free expansion time of 7.0 s. This record-low temperature could stimulate a new generation of ODT-based experiments in quantum simulation and precision measurements in space.
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