Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics
Fast, simple, all-optical production of sodium spinor condensates
Wenliang Liu, Ningxuan Zheng, Xiaofeng Wang, Jing Xu, Yuqing Li, V. B. Sovkov, Peng Li, Yongming Fu, Jizhou Wu, Jie Ma, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia
Abstract
Abstract We present an experiment for quickly producing Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) of 23 Na atoms in a simple crossed dipole trap. The atoms were collected in a magneto-optical trap from a zero-crossing Zeeman slower. The atoms are then transferred to a tightly focused crossed optical dipole trap, and a pure F = 1 BEC of ∼1.1 × 10 5 sodium atoms was created by a fast forced evaporation. Our system reliably generates the condensate at a rate exceeding 10 5 atoms every ∼8 s. We also compare the lifetimes of the mixed F = 1 condensate and the spin components ( m F = 0, m F = +1).