Feature

Optical Confinement of Bose-Einstein Condensates

Wolfgang Ketterle, Dept. of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

Three years after the first observations of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in dilute atomic gases this new field is still bustling with increasing activities. Until recently, all studies of BEC had been performed in magnetic traps. These traps, in combination with RF-induced evaporation, are ideal for cooling and trapping atoms at very low temperature and might develop into workhorses for nanokelvin atomic physics.