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Colder, yet colder atoms.

Author(s) : FOOT C.

Type of article: Article

Summary

Techniques for cooling atoms have improved dramatically in the past few years and recently Petrich et al. reached the lowest temperature so far, only 200 nanoK above absolute zero. This brings the possibility of seeing the long-sought Bose-Einstein condensation in a gas tantalizing close. To reach this low temperature, Petrich loaded the laser-cooled atoms into a magnetic trap produced with currents in opposite directions. At first, they used just a quadrupole magnetic field, which gives a zero point field at the center of the coil and the atoms congregate around this point of minimum magnetic potential energy. To avoid this undesirable loss mechanism, Petrich et al. invented a way to plug the leak. They called this a time-averaged orbiting potential trap. It combines the tight confinement and convenience of a quadrupole trap with the advantages of having a harmonic potential and non-zero magnetic field at the bottom. Petrich et al. thus obtained 20,000 atoms at 200 nanoK and a density of 6 x 10 billions/cm3. J.V.

Details

  • Original title: Colder, yet colder atoms.
  • Record ID : 1996-0699
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Nature - vol. 375 - n. 6531
  • Publication date: 1995/06/08
  • Document available for consultation in the library of the IIR headquarters only.

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