The Review of Laser Engineering
Laser Cooling and Bose-Einstein Condensation. Experimental Techniques for Bose-Einstein Condensation of Rubidium Atoms.
Yoshio Torii
Abstract
Experimental techniques to produce and observe a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms are presented. The atoms are first optically cooled and trapped in an ultra-high vacuum (-10-11 torr) glass cell using a double magneto-optical trap, and then transferred to a “cloverleaf” magnetic trap. Rf-induced evaporation is performed to further cool the magnetically trapped atoms below the phase transition of Bose-Einstein condensation. The velocity distribution (inferred by absorption imaging) of the cooled atomic cloud clearly shows the expected bi-modal structure characteristic of a condensate