Creation of a Bose-condensed gas of 87 Rb by laser cooling
Abstract
When atomic gases, such as those of alkali elements, are cooled to very low temperatures, they can reach a state of quantum degeneracy, where their quantum nature comes to the fore. In this process, the very last step is evaporative cooling, in which the hottest atoms are coaxed into leaving the gas. Hu et al. devised a protocol that evades the evaporative cooling step, is faster, and suffers less atom loss. The method rests on iteratively manipulating the laser beams of an optical lattice in which a gas of 87 Rb atoms is held so that the gas becomes progressively denser. The method should be widely applicable to other atomic species.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 24, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aan5614
Entities
People
- Alban Urvoy
- Jia-Zhong Hu
- Valentin Crépel
- Vladan Vuletić
- Wenlan Chen
- Zachary Vendeiro
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Army Research Office
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Science Foundation