Production of rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in an optically-plugged magnetic quadrupole trap

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental creation of rubidium Bose-Einstein condensates using an optically-plugged magnetic quadrupole trap, demonstrating increased atom numbers and suppressed heating through optical plugging and RF cooling.

Contribution

First demonstration of rubidium BEC in an optically-plugged magnetic quadrupole trap with detailed analysis of condensate properties.

Findings

Condensate atom number: 1.2(0.4)×10^5

Temperature below 100 nK

Studied phase space density and expansion behavior

Abstract

We have experimentally produced rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in an optically-plugged magnetic quadrupole (OPQ) trap. A far blue-detuned focused laser beam with a wavelength of 532 nm is plugged in the center of the magnetic quadrupole trap to increase the number of trapped atoms and suppress the heating. A radio frequency (RF) evaporative cooling in the magneto-optical hybrid trap is applied to decrease the atom temperature into degeneracy. The atom number of the condensate is $1.2(0.4)\times10^5$ and the temperature is below 100 nK. We have also studied characteristic behaviors of the condensate, such as phase space density (PSD), condensate fraction and anisotropic expansion.