Sodium Bose-Einstein Condensates in an Optical Lattice

Published

October 10, 2005

Author(s)

K Xu, Y Liu, J R. Abo-Shaeer, T Mukaiyama, J K. Chin, D E. Miller, W Ketterle, Kevin Jones, Eite Tiesinga

Abstract

The phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator has been observed in a 23Na Bose-Einstein condensate. A dye laser detuned 5 nm red of the Na 3 ^2S \rightarrow 3 ^2P_1⁄2 transition was used to form the three dimensional optical lattice. The heating effects of the small detuning as well as the three-body decay processes constrained the timescale of the experiment. Certain lattice detunings were found to induce a large loss of atoms. These loss features were shown to be due to photoassociation of atoms to vibrational levels in the Na2 1 3(Sig)g+ state.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

72

Issue

4

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

optical lattices, photoassociation, sodium, ultra-cold atoms

Citation

Xu, K. , Liu, Y. , Abo-Shaeer, J. , Mukaiyama, T. , Chin, J. , Miller, D. , Ketterle, W. , Jones, K. and Tiesinga, E. (2005), Sodium Bose-Einstein Condensates in an Optical Lattice, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 24, 2025)