Buffer-Gas Cooled Bose-Einstein Condensate

S. Charles Doret, Colin B. Connolly, Wolfgang Ketterle, and John M. Doyle
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 103005 – Published 3 September 2009

Abstract

We report the creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate using buffer-gas cooling, the first realization of Bose-Einstein condensation using a broadly general method which relies neither on laser cooling nor unique atom-surface properties. Metastable helium (He*4) is buffer-gas cooled, magnetically trapped, and evaporatively cooled to quantum degeneracy. 1011 atoms are initially trapped, leading to Bose-Einstein condensation at a critical temperature of 5μK and threshold atom number of 1.1×106. This method is applicable to a wide array of paramagnetic atoms and molecules, many of which are impractical to laser cool and impossible to surface cool.

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  • Received 12 June 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.103005

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

S. Charles Doret1,3, Colin B. Connolly1,3, Wolfgang Ketterle2,3, and John M. Doyle1,3

  • 1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 3Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 10 — 4 September 2009

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