Creation of a Bose-condensed gas of <sup>87</sup> Rb by laser cooling
Creation of a Bose-condensed gas of <sup>87</sup> Rb by laser cooling
We demonstrate direct laser cooling of a gas of rubidium 87 atoms to quantum degeneracy. The method does not involve evaporative cooling, is fast, and induces little atom loss. The atoms are trapped in a two-dimensional optical lattice that enables cycles of cloud compression to increase the density, followed by …