Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensation of an atomic Rubidium gas is achieved using a novel magnetic trapping scheme. The atoms are first trapped in a magnetic quadrupole geometry which is then converted into a Ioffe geometry. The trap provides strong confinement of the atoms and allows efficient evaporative cooling. It uses only three current carrying coils (i.e. no additional bias coils) and merely 600 Watts of electric power are dissipated. Two of the coils produce the quadrupole field in which the atoms are initially trapped. The third coil is mounted perpendicular to the axis of the quadrupole. As the current through the third coil is turned on the center of the quadrupole is being shifted until the magnetic field zero vanishes. At this point the trapping potential has become similar to that of a Ioffe trap and provides a cigar shaped parabolic trapping potential for the atoms.

© 1998 IEEE