Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1504.06197 · Physical Review A

Fast production of Bose-Einstein condensates of metastable helium

Quentin Bouton, R. Chang, A. L. Hoendervanger, Florence Nogrette, Alain Aspect, Christoph Ira Westbrook, David Clément

Published Jun 9, 2015• 34 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report on the Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ atoms using a hybrid approach, consisting of a magnetic quadrupole and an optical dipole trap. In our setup we cross the phase transition with $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ atoms, and we obtain pure condensates of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms in the optical trap. This approach to cooling $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ provides enhanced cycle stability, large optical access to the atoms and results in the production of a condensate every 6 s---a factor 2 faster than the state of the art. This speed-up will significantly reduce the data acquisition time needed for the measurement of many particle correlations, made possible by the ability of metastable helium atoms to be detected individually.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.91.061402

Related papers

Rapid generation of metastable helium Bose-Einstein condensates

A. H. Abbas, X. Meng, Rohit Patil +3 more

We report the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable helium atoms using an in-vacuum coil magnetic trap and a crossed-beam optical dipole trap. A quadrupole-Ioffe configuration magnetic trap made from in-vacuum hollow copper tubes provides fast switching times while generating traps with a 10-G bias, without compromising optical access. The bias enables in-trap one-dimensional Doppler cooling to be used, which is the only cooling stage between the magneto-optic trap and the optical dipole trap. This allows direct transfer to the dipole trap without the need for any additional evaporative cooling in the magnetic trap. The entire experimental sequence takes 3.3 s, with essentially pure BECs observed with $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{6}$ atoms after evaporative cooling in the dipole trap.

arXiv:2102.10810•Physical Review A•May 21, 2021•4 citations

Simple method for producing Bose-Einstein condensates of metastable helium using a single beam optical dipole trap

Flores, A.S., Mishra, H.P., W. Vassen +1 more

We demonstrate a simple scheme to reach Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable triplet helium atoms using a single-beam optical dipole trap with moderate power of less than 3 W. Our scheme is based on RF-induced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap that is located below the magnetic trap center. We transfer $$1\times 10^6$$ atoms into the optical dipole trap, with an initial temperature of $$14\,\upmu\hbox{K}$$ , and observe efficient forced evaporative cooling both in a hybrid trap, in which the quadrupole magnetic trap operates just below the levitation gradient, and in the pure optical dipole trap, reaching the onset of BEC with $$2\times 10^5$$ atoms and a pure BEC of $$5\times 10^4$$ atoms. Our work shows that a single-beam hybrid trap can be applied for a light atom, for which evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap is strongly limited by Majorana spin-flips, and the very small levitation gradient limits the axial confinement in the hybrid trap.

•Jan 1, 2015•4 citations

Simple method for producing Bose–Einstein condensates of metastable helium using a single-beam optical dipole trap

Adonis Silva Flores, Hari Prasad Mishra, W. Vassen +1 more

We demonstrate a simple scheme to reach Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable triplet helium atoms using a single-beam optical dipole trap with moderate power of less than 3 W. Our scheme is based on RF-induced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap that is located below the magnetic trap center. We transfer $$1\times 10^6$$ atoms into the optical dipole trap, with an initial temperature of $$14\,\upmu\hbox{K}$$ , and observe efficient forced evaporative cooling both in a hybrid trap, in which the quadrupole magnetic trap operates just below the levitation gradient, and in the pure optical dipole trap, reaching the onset of BEC with $$2\times 10^5$$ atoms and a pure BEC of $$5\times 10^4$$ atoms. Our work shows that a single-beam hybrid trap can be applied for a light atom, for which evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap is strongly limited by Majorana spin-flips, and the very small levitation gradient limits the axial confinement in the hybrid trap.

arXiv:1508.04019•Applied Physics B•Oct 27, 2015•6 citations

Production of87Rb Bose—Einstein condensates in a hybrid trap

Yafan Duan, Bo-Nan Jiang, Jian-Fang Sun +3 more

We report a rapid evaporative cooling method using a hybrid trap which is composed of a quadrupole magnetic trap and a one-beam optical dipole trap. It contains two kinds of evaporative coolings to reach the quantum degeneracy: initial radio-frequency (RF) enforced evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap and further runaway evaporative cooling in the optical dipole trap. The hybrid trap does not require a very high power laser such as that in the traditional pure optical trap, but still has a deep trap depth and a large trap volume, and has better optical access than the normal magnetic trap like the quadrupole-Ioffe-configuration (QUIC) cloverleaf trap. A high trap frequency can be easily realized in the hybrid trap to enhance the elastic collision rate and shorten the evaporative cooling time. In our experiment, pure Bose—Einstein condensates (BECs) with about 1 × 10 5 atoms can be realized in 6 s evaporative cooling in the optical dipole trap.

Chinese Physics B•May 1, 2013•4 citations

Efficient production of an 87Rb F = 2, mF = 2 Bose-Einstein condensate in a hybrid trap

Hari Prasad Mishra, Adonis Silva Flores, W. Vassen +1 more

We have realized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of 87Rb in the F = 2, m F = 2 hyperfine substate in a hybrid trap, consisting of a quadrupole magnetic field and a single optical dipole beam. The symmetry axis of the quadrupole magnetic trap coincides with the optical beam axis, which gives stronger axial confinement than previous hybrid traps. After loading 2 × 106 atoms at 14 μK from a quadrupole magnetic trap into the hybrid trap, we perform efficient forced evaporation and reach the onset of BEC at a temperature of 0.5 μK and with 4 × 105 atoms. We also obtain thermal clouds of 1 × 106 atoms below 1 μK in a pure single beam optical dipole trap, by ramping down the magnetic field gradient after evaporative cooling in the hybrid trap.

arXiv:1411.7628•The European Physical Journal D•Feb 1, 2015•13 citations

All-optical cooling of K39 to Bose-Einstein condensation

Guillaume Salomon, Lauriane Fouché, S. Lepoutre +2 more

We report the all-optical production of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of $^{39}\mathrm{K}$ atoms. We directly load $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms in a large volume optical dipole trap from gray molasses on the D1 transition. We then apply a small magnetic quadrupole field to polarize the sample before transferring the atoms in a tightly confining optical trap. Evaporative cooling is finally performed close to a Feshbach resonance to enhance the scattering length. Our setup allows one to cross the BEC threshold with $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms every 7 s. As an illustration of the interest of the tunability of the interactions we study the expansion of Bose-Einstein condensates in the one-dimensional to three-dimensional crossover.

arXiv:1407.5317•Physical Review A•Sep 5, 2014•40 citations
We report on the Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He atoms using a hybrid approach, consisting of a magnetic quadrupole and an optical dipole trap. In our setup we cross the phase transition with 2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1062\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}2\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi106 atoms, and we obtain pure condensates of 5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi1055\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}5\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi105 atoms in the optical trap. This approach to cooling 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He provides enhanced cycle stability, large optical access to the atoms and results in the production of a condensate every 6 s---a factor 2 faster than the state of the art. This speed-up will significantly reduce the data acquisition time needed for the measurement of many particle correlations, made possible by the ability of metastable helium atoms to be detected individually.
We report the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable helium atoms using an in-vacuum coil magnetic trap and a crossed-beam optical dipole trap. A quadrupole-Ioffe configuration magnetic trap made from in-vacuum hollow copper tubes provides fast switching times while generating traps with a 10-G bias, without compromising optical access. The bias enables in-trap one-dimensional Doppler cooling to be used, which is the only cooling stage between the magneto-optic trap and the optical dipole trap. This allows direct transfer to the dipole trap without the need for any additional evaporative cooling in the magnetic trap. The entire experimental sequence takes 3.3 s, with essentially pure BECs observed with $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{6}$ atoms after evaporative cooling in the dipole trap.
We demonstrate a simple scheme to reach Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable triplet helium atoms using a single-beam optical dipole trap with moderate power of less than 3 W. Our scheme is based on RF-induced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap that is located below the magnetic trap center. We transfer 1×1061\times 10^61×106 atoms into the optical dipole trap, with an initial temperature of $$14\,\upmu\hbox{K}$$ , and observe efficient forced evaporative cooling both in a hybrid trap, in which the quadrupole magnetic trap operates just below the levitation gradient, and in the pure optical dipole trap, reaching the onset of BEC with 2×1052\times 10^52×105 atoms and a pure BEC of 5×1045\times 10^45×104 atoms. Our work shows that a single-beam hybrid trap can be applied for a light atom, for which evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap is strongly limited by Majorana spin-flips, and the very small levitation gradient limits the axial confinement in the hybrid trap.
We demonstrate a simple scheme to reach Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of metastable triplet helium atoms using a single-beam optical dipole trap with moderate power of less than 3 W. Our scheme is based on RF-induced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap that is located below the magnetic trap center. We transfer 1×1061\times 10^61×106 atoms into the optical dipole trap, with an initial temperature of $$14\,\upmu\hbox{K}$$ , and observe efficient forced evaporative cooling both in a hybrid trap, in which the quadrupole magnetic trap operates just below the levitation gradient, and in the pure optical dipole trap, reaching the onset of BEC with 2×1052\times 10^52×105 atoms and a pure BEC of 5×1045\times 10^45×104 atoms. Our work shows that a single-beam hybrid trap can be applied for a light atom, for which evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap is strongly limited by Majorana spin-flips, and the very small levitation gradient limits the axial confinement in the hybrid trap.
We report a rapid evaporative cooling method using a hybrid trap which is composed of a quadrupole magnetic trap and a one-beam optical dipole trap. It contains two kinds of evaporative coolings to reach the quantum degeneracy: initial radio-frequency (RF) enforced evaporative cooling in the quadrupole magnetic trap and further runaway evaporative cooling in the optical dipole trap. The hybrid trap does not require a very high power laser such as that in the traditional pure optical trap, but still has a deep trap depth and a large trap volume, and has better optical access than the normal magnetic trap like the quadrupole-Ioffe-configuration (QUIC) cloverleaf trap. A high trap frequency can be easily realized in the hybrid trap to enhance the elastic collision rate and shorten the evaporative cooling time. In our experiment, pure Bose—Einstein condensates (BECs) with about 1 × 10 5 atoms can be realized in 6 s evaporative cooling in the optical dipole trap.
We have realized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of 87Rb in the F = 2, m F = 2 hyperfine substate in a hybrid trap, consisting of a quadrupole magnetic field and a single optical dipole beam. The symmetry axis of the quadrupole magnetic trap coincides with the optical beam axis, which gives stronger axial confinement than previous hybrid traps. After loading 2 × 106 atoms at 14 μK from a quadrupole magnetic trap into the hybrid trap, we perform efficient forced evaporation and reach the onset of BEC at a temperature of 0.5 μK and with 4 × 105 atoms. We also obtain thermal clouds of 1 × 106 atoms below 1 μK in a pure single beam optical dipole trap, by ramping down the magnetic field gradient after evaporative cooling in the hybrid trap.
We report the all-optical production of Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K atoms. We directly load $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms in a large volume optical dipole trap from gray molasses on the D1 transition. We then apply a small magnetic quadrupole field to polarize the sample before transferring the atoms in a tightly confining optical trap. Evaporative cooling is finally performed close to a Feshbach resonance to enhance the scattering length. Our setup allows one to cross the BEC threshold with $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms every 7 s. As an illustration of the interest of the tunability of the interactions we study the expansion of Bose-Einstein condensates in the one-dimensional to three-dimensional crossover.