Abstract

The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEG) with neutral alkalis¹ has led to a better understanding of the behavior of quantum gases and to a plethora of other new phenomena. In a recent experiment, the group from JILA obtained a condensate that contained an overlapping mixture of two different states of ⁸⁷Rb.² Even more exciting phenomena may arise from a condensate that contains two different, elements.³ Among various possibilities, one of the most attractive would be a mixture of Na and Rb atoms, which are known to separately give rise to robust condensates. In this Work, we present the first magneto-optical trap that simultaneously contains Na and Rb atoms, opening the way for the realization of two-species BEC.

© 1998 Optical Society of America