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arXiv:2102.10810 · Physical Review A

Rapid generation of metastable helium Bose-Einstein condensates

A. H. Abbas, X. Meng, Rohit Patil, Jacob A. Ross, Andrew G. Truscott, Sean S. Hodgman

Published May 21, 2021• 4 citations
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Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.103.053317

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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Nov 27, 2002•0 citations
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∼106\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{6}\ensuremath∼106 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 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 $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ atoms, and we obtain pure condensates of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms in the optical trap. This approach to cooling 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.
The apparatus and procedure required to generate a pure Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) consisting of about half a million 87Rb atoms at a temperature of <60 nK with a phase density of >54 is described. The atoms are first laser cooled in a vapour cell magneto-optical trap (MOT) and subsequently transferred to an ultra-low pressure MOT. The atoms are loaded into a QUIC trap consisting of a pair of quadrupole coils and a Ioffe coil that generates a small finite magnetic field at the trap energy minimum to suppress Majorana transitions. Evaporation induced by an RF field lowers the temperature permitting the transition to BEC to be observed by monitoring the free expansion of the atoms after the trapping fields have been switched off.PACS Nos.: 03.75.Fi, 05.30.Jp, 32.80.Pj, 64.60.–i
Since its first observation in 1995, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) experiments in dilute gases have been performed with only a few different kinds of magnetic traps. We have performed a BEC experiment with /sup 87/Rb atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic potential, which opens up the possibility to study, e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates released in only one dimension. Our trap consists of a clip-like coil, which generates a pure two-dimensional (2D) quadrupole field for radial confinement. The axial confinement is provided by two plane pinch coils inside the clip-coil. These two coils create a bottle field. Two additional Helmholtz coils on the same symmetry axis are used to compensate the homogeneous part of the bottle field. By continuously varying the currents through the coils, the trapping potential can be changed from a 3D spherical harmonic to a 2D linear potential. The change can be done adiabatically or nonadiabatically by switching off the axial confinement slowly, or instantaneously respectively. This opens up the possibility to study 1D nonlinear atom optics. In combination with, e.g., far detuned light sheets, a Fabry-Perot type interferometer for a condensate might be realizable. Our experiments are performed in a vacuum system with two magneto-optical traps, which serves as the source of cold atoms for the magnetic trap. 10/sup 9/ atoms are captured in less than one minute. RF-induced evaporative cooling is used to increase the phase space density of the trapped atomic cloud. The BEC phase transition occurs at a temperature of 550 nK with 10/sup 6/ particles in the trap. Pure condensates with more than 10/sup 5/ atoms were produced.
Summary form only given.Since its first observation in 1995, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) experiments in dilute gases have been performed with only a few different kinds of magnetic traps. We have performed a BEC experiment with /sup 87/Rb atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic potential, which opens up the possibility to study, e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates released in only one dimension. Our trap consists of a clip-like coil, which generates a pure two-dimensional (2D) quadrupole field for radial confinement. The axial confinement is provided by two plane pinch coils inside the clip-coil. These two coils create a bottle field. Two additional Helmholtz coils on the same symmetry axis are used to compensate the homogeneous part of the bottle field. By continuously varying the currents through the coils, the trapping potential can be changed from a 3D spherical harmonic to a 2D linear potential. The change can be done adiabatically or nonadiabatically by switching off the axial confinement slowly, or instantaneously respectively. This opens up the possibility to study 1D nonlinear atom optics. In combination with, e.g., far detuned light sheets, a Fabry-Perot type interferometer for a condensate might be realizable. Our experiments are performed in a vacuum system with two magneto-optical traps, which serves as the source of cold atoms for the magnetic trap. 10/sup 9/ atoms are captured in less than one minute. RF-induced evaporative cooling is used to increase the phase space density of the trapped atomic cloud. The BEC phase transition occurs at a temperature of 550 nK with 10/sup 6/ particles in the trap. Pure condensates with more than 10/sup 5/ atoms were produced.