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Physics World

Triple first for Bose condensates

Christopher J. Foot

Published May 1, 2001• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Almost six years have passed since the first Bose-Einstein condensates were created in dilute atomic gases. In that time the field has blossomed into one of the largest and most active areas of atomic physics. Recent months, in particular, have witnessed a rapid growth in research into Bose condensates, with the announcement of breakthroughs in three very different areas.

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/14/5/26

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Almost six years have passed since the first Bose-Einstein condensates were created in dilute atomic gases. In that time the field has blossomed into one of the largest and most active areas of atomic physics. Recent months, in particular, have witnessed a rapid growth in research into Bose condensates, with the announcement of breakthroughs in three very different areas.
For sufficiently low temperatures, a Bose gas experiences a transition into a Bose-Einstein condensate, characterized by a macroscopic occupation of the ground state of the system. The development of efficient cooling and trapping techniques for neutral atoms led in 1995, to the first observation of BEC in dilute alkali gases in 87Rb [1]. This remarkable achievement has been followed by BEC experiments in various other elements. The BEC has become during the last years, one of the most active and fruitful research areas of modern atomic physics, constituting an interdisciplinary field, which links atomic physics with various other research areas, like quantum optics, condensed-matter physics, and very especially nonlinear physics.
The experimental realization in 1995 of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute atomic gases marked the beginning of a very rapid development in the study of quantum gases. The initial experiments were performed on vapours of rubidium, sodium, and lithium. So far, the atoms 1 H, 7 Li, 23 Na, 39 K, 41 K, 52 Cr, 85 Rb, 87 Rb, 133 Cs, 170 Yb, 174 Yb and 4 He * (the helium atom in an excited state) have been demonstrated to undergo Bose–Einstein condensation. In related developments, atomic Fermi gases have been cooled to well below the degeneracy temperature, and a superfluid state with correlated pairs of fermions has been observed. Also molecules consisting of pairs of fermionic atoms such as 6 Li or 40 K have been observed to undergo Bose–Einstein condensation. Atoms have been put into optical lattices, thereby allowing the study of many-body systems that are realizations of models used in condensed matter physics. Although the gases are very dilute, the atoms can be made to interact strongly, thus providing new challenges for the description of strongly correlated many-body systems. In a period of less than ten years the study of dilute quantum gases has changed from an esoteric topic to an integral part of contemporary physics, with strong ties to molecular, atomic, subatomic and condensed matter physics. The dilute quantum gases differ from ordinary gases, liquids and solids in a number of ways, as we shall now illustrate by giving values of physical quantities.
The rate of progress in the field of ultracold atomic gases over the past decade has been remarkable. Ever since the first Bose–Einstein condensate was produced in rubidium-87 exactly 10 years ago this month, a string of ground-breaking results has flowed from laboratories around the world. Indeed, since the Physics World website started publishing its highlights of the year in 1997, ultracold gases have only failed to make the list once (in 2000). In recent years attention has switched to degenerate Fermi gases,which are shaping up to be just as exciting (see pages 8–9).
A year ago this month, physicists first created a Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter in which a cloud of trapped atoms is cooled so close to absolute zero that their quantum-mechanical waves merge. But with barely 1000 atoms in a condensate that lasted just a few seconds, the researchers could do no more than say they'd done it. Now the field is being transformed by a new atom trap that can create condensates of 5 million sodium atoms that survive for half a minute and a new technique for imaging condensates without destroying them. Several research groups are now probing the size, growth rate, optical properties, and even the viscosity of this new form of matter.