Realization of Bose-Einstein condensation with Lithium-7 atoms

Abstract

This thesis presents our work on developing and improving the techniques of trapping and cooling an ultra-cold cloud of Lithium-7 atoms and the realization of the Bose- Einstein condensate as a first step to study quantum magnetism in optical lattice. The techniques used in this experiment include Zeeman slowing, magneto-optical trapping (MOT), gray molasses, static magnetic trapping, evaporative cooling, optical dipole trapping (ODT), etc. The apparatus has the capability of creating a Bose-Einstein condensate with almost 106 atoms in 10 seconds as well as tuning the interaction between atoms in a BEC using the Feshbach resonance with a magnetic bias field of up to ~~ 1000G.