Fast production of Bose-Einstein condensates of metastable helium

Abstract

We report on the Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ atoms using a hybrid approach, consisting of a magnetic quadrupole and an optical dipole trap. In our setup we cross the phase transition with $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ atoms, and we obtain pure condensates of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms in the optical trap. This approach to cooling $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ provides enhanced cycle stability, large optical access to the atoms and results in the production of a condensate every 6 s---a factor 2 faster than the state of the art. This speed-up will significantly reduce the data acquisition time needed for the measurement of many particle correlations, made possible by the ability of metastable helium atoms to be detected individually.