Towards Bose-Einstein condensation with metastable helium atoms
S. Nowak, Antoine Browaeys, J. Poupard +4 more
Summary form only given. Until now Bose-Einstein condensation has only been achieved for atoms in the first group of the periodic table. The goal of our experiment is to obtain this phase transition in a gas of ultra-cold metastable (2 /sup 3/S/sub 1/) helium atoms, using a combination of laser cooling, magnetic trapping and evaporative cooling. Dense cold samples of metastable helium are a well-suited tool for surface potential studies and precision measurements.
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Jan 1, 2000•0 citations