Thermal performance of a radiatively cooled system for quantum optomechanical experiments in space
- Author(s)
- Andre Pilan Zanoni, Johannes Burkhardt, Ulrich Johann, Markus Aspelmeyer, Rainer Kaltenbaek, Gerald Hechenblaikner
- Abstract
Passive cooling of scientific instruments via thermal radiation to deep space offers many advantages over active cooling in terms of mission cost, lifetime and the achievable quality of vacuum and microgravity. Motivated by the mission proposal MAQRO to test, the foundations of quantum physics harnessing a deep-space environment, we investigate the performance of a radiatively cooled instrument, where the environment of a test particle in a quantum superposition has to be cooled to less than 20 K. We perform a heat-transfer analysis between the instrument components and a transfer-function analysis on thermal oscillations induced by the spacecraft interior and dissipative sources. The thermal behavior of the instrument is discussed for an orbit around a Lagrangian point and for a highly elliptical Earth orbit. Finally, we investigate possible design improvements. These include a mirror-based design of the imaging system on the optical bench (OB) and an extension of the heat shields.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Airbus Deutschland, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), European Southern Observatory (Germany)
- Journal
- Applied Thermal Engineering
- Volume
- 107
- Pages
- 689-699
- No. of pages
- 11
- ISSN
- 1359-4311
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.06.116
- Publication date
- 08-2016
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103025 Quantum mechanics, 103004 Astrophysics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/80cfc1a1-4ff4-408e-b41d-e8a5249ed65c