Preparation and manipulation of an 87 Rb Bose-Einstein condensate

We describe our experimental setup for creating stable Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of (85)Rb with tunable interparticle interactions. We use sympathetic cooling with (87)Rb in two stages, initially in a tight Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and subsequently in a weak, large-volume, crossed optical dipole trap, using the 155 G Feshbach resonance to manipulate the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of the (85)Rb atoms. Typical (85)Rb condensates contain 4 x 10(4) atoms with a scattering length of a=+200a(0). Many aspects of the design presented here could be adapted to other dual-species BEC machines, including those involving degenerate Fermi-Bose mixtures. Our minimalist apparatus is well suited to experiments on dual-species and spinor Rb condensates, and has several simplifications over the (85)Rb BEC machine at JILA, which we discuss at the end of this article.We describe our experimental setup for creating stable Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of (85)Rb with tunable interparticle interactions. We use sympathetic cooling with (87)Rb in two stages, initially in a tight Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and subsequently in a weak, large-volume, crossed optical dipole trap, using the 155 G Feshbach resonance to manipulate the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of the (85)Rb atoms. Typical (85)Rb condensates contain 4 x 10(4) atoms with a scattering length of a=+200a(0). Many aspects of the design presented here could be adapted to other dual-species BEC machines, including those involving degenerate Fermi-Bose mixtures. Our minimalist apparatus is well suited to experiments on dual-species and spinor Rb condensates, and has several simplifications over the (85)Rb BEC machine at JILA, which we discuss at the end of this article.

arXiv:1003.4819Review of Scientific InstrumentsJun 1, 201040 citations

Bose-Einstein condensation of 85 Rb by direct evaporation in an optical dipole trap

A. L. Marchant, S. Händel, S. A. Hopkins +2 more

We report a simple method for the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates of ${}^{85}$ Rb by direct evaporation in a crossed optical dipole trap. The independent control of the trap frequencies and magnetic bias field afforded by the trapping scheme permits full control of the trapped atomic sample, enabling the collision parameters to be easily manipulated to achieve efficient evaporation in the vicinity of the 155 G Feshbach resonance. We produce nearly pure condensates of up to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms and demonstrate the tunable nature of the atomic interactions.We report a simple method for the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates of ${}^{85}$Rb by direct evaporation in a crossed optical dipole trap. The independent control of the trap frequencies and magnetic bias field afforded by the trapping scheme permits full control of the trapped atomic sample, enabling the collision parameters to be easily manipulated to achieve efficient evaporation in the vicinity of the 155 G Feshbach resonance. We produce nearly pure condensates of up to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms and demonstrate the tunable nature of the atomic interactions.

arXiv:1203.6598Physical Review AMay 30, 201218 citations

MANIPULATION OF A BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATE

Xiaoji Zhou, Xuzong Chen, Yiqiu Wang

Annual review of cold atoms and moleculesJan 27, 20130 citations

We report a simple method for the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates of

{}^{85}

Rb by direct evaporation in a crossed optical dipole trap. The independent control of the trap frequencies and magnetic bias field afforded by the trapping scheme permits full control of the trapped atomic sample, enabling the collision parameters to be easily manipulated to achieve efficient evaporation in the vicinity of the 155 G Feshbach resonance. We produce nearly pure condensates of up to $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms and demonstrate the tunable nature of the atomic interactions.