Bose-Einstein condensation of 87Rb in a levitated crossed dipole trap

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for producing Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium-87 atoms using a levitated crossed dipole trap, enabling efficient cooling and potential applications in ultracold molecule creation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel apparatus combining magnetic and optical trapping techniques for efficient BEC production of 87Rb and discusses its application to sympathetic cooling of 133Cs.

Findings

Achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of ~1 million 87Rb atoms.

Demonstrated sympathetic cooling of different 87Rb sublevels.

Discussed potential for cooling 133Cs with 87Rb.

Abstract

We report an apparatus and method capable of producing Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ~1x10^6 87Rb atoms, and ultimately designed for sympathetic cooling of 133Cs and the creation of ultracold RbCs molecules. The method combines several elements: i) the large recapture of a magnetic quadrupole trap from a magneto-optical trap, ii) efficient forced RF evaporation in such a magnetic trap, iii) the gain in phase-space density obtained when loading the magnetically trapped atoms into a far red-detuned optical dipole trap and iv) efficient evaporation to BEC within the dipole trap. We demonstrate that the system is capable of sympathetically cooling the |F=1,m_F=-1> and |1,0> sublevels with |1,+1> atoms. Finally we discuss the applicability of the method to sympathetic cooling of 133Cs with 87Rb.