Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: We have produced a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable helium $(^{4}\mathrm{He}^{*})$ containing over $1.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms, which is a factor of 25 higher than previously achieved. The improved starting conditions for evaporative cooling are obtained by applying one-dimensional Doppler cooling inside a magnetic trap. The same technique is successfully used to cool the spin-polarized fermionic isotope $(^{3}\mathrm{He}^{*})$, for which thermalizing collisions are highly suppressed. Our detection techniques include absorption imaging, time-of-flight measurements on a microchannel plate detector, and ion counting to monitor the formation and decay of the condensate.
Source: Physical Review A
Authors: A. S. Tychkov, T. Jeltes, J. M. McNamara, P. J. J. Tol, N. Herschbach, W. Hogervorst, W. Vassen
Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1994976038