aARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Abstract:
Using a novel magnetic trapping geometry we have evaporatively cooled metastable helium atoms to form a Bose–Einstein condensate containing approximately one million atoms. This is only the fourth demonstration of a metastable condensate and the first realisation of a BEC in a bi-planar quadrupole Ioffe configuration magnetic trap.