Performance of a radiatively cooled system for quantum optomechanical experiments in space [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.01032


The performance of a radiatively cooled instrument is investigated in the context of optomechanical quantum experiments, where the environment of a macroscopic particle in a quantum-superposition has to be cooled to less than 20\,K in deep space. A heat-transfer analysis between the components of the instrument as well as a transfer-function analysis on thermal oscillations induced by the spacecraft interior and by dissipative sources is performed. The thermal behaviour of the instrument in an orbit around a Lagrangian point and in a highly elliptical Earth orbit is discussed. Finally, we investigate further possible design improvements aiming at lower temperatures of the environment of the macroscopic particle. These include a mirror-based design of the imaging system on the optical bench and the extension of the heat shields.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Pilan-Zanoni, J. Burkhardt, U. Johann, et. al.
Thu, 6 Aug 15
36/48

Comments: 13 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables