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 () is buffer-gas cooled, magnetically trapped, and evaporatively cooled to quantum degeneracy. atoms are initially trapped, leading to Bose-Einstein condensation at a critical temperature of and threshold atom number of . 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.
- Received 12 June 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.103005
©2009 American Physical Society