The effects of surface-induced evaporative cooling on an atom chip are investigated. The evolutions of temperature, number and phase-space density of the atom cloud are measured when the atom cloud is brought close to the surface. Rapid decrease of the temperature and number of the atoms is found when the atom-surface distance is 〈 100 ttm. A gain of about a factor of five on the phase-space density is obtained. It is found that the efficiency of the surface-induced evaporative cooling depends on the atom-surface distance and the shape of the evaporative trap. When the atoms are moved very close to the surface, severe heating is observed, which dominates when the holding time is 〉 8 ms. It is important that the surface-induced evaporative cooling offers novel possibilities for the realization of a continuous condensation, where a spatially varying evaporative cooling is required.
The research platform for Bose-Einstein condensate in 87 Rb atomic gas,which is composed of a double MOT configuration and a QUIC trap,was reported.The properties of the condensate were measured both in time-of-flight and in tight confinement by the absorption imaging method.The measurements agreed with the criterions of Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition.About 2×10 5 atoms were pure condensed.
XU Zhen ,ZHOU ShuYu,ZHOU ShanYu&WANG YuZhu Key Laboratory for Quantum Optics,Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shanghai 201800,China
A new method of frequency-shifting for a diode laser is realized. Using a sample-and-hold circuit, the error signal can be held by the circuit during frequency shifting. It can avoid the restraint of locking or even lock-losing caused by the servo circuit when we input a step-up voltage into piezoelectric transition （PZT） to achieve laser frequency-shifting.
