Large atom number Bose-Einstein Condensate machines

TL;DR

This paper details the design and implementation of experimental setups capable of producing large Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium and rubidium, featuring high atom numbers and flexible experimental configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile setup for creating large BECs with 20 million atoms and includes a transport system for ultracold atoms, enabling diverse experiments.

Findings

Achieved Bose-Einstein condensates with 20 million atoms.

Implemented a flexible two-chamber system with optical tweezers.

Demonstrated rapid preparation and transfer of ultracold atoms.

Abstract

We describe experimental setups for producing large Bose-Einstein condensates of 23Na and 87Rb. In both, a high flux thermal atomic beam is decelerated by a Zeeman slower and is captured and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. The atoms are then transfered into a cloverleaf style Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and cooled to quantum degeneracy with radio frequency induced forced evaporation. Typical condensates contain 20 million atoms. The design includes a second vacuum chamber into which ultracold atoms can be transported with an optical tweezers. This allows the flexibility to rapidly prepare and perform a wide variety of experiments.