We achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of Rb87 atoms.
After a little over one-and-a-half years of building we achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of Rb atoms. Thanks to all people who directly or indirectly contributed to this milestone. Particularly we would like to thank our former project students Hendrik von Raven, Oliver Brix, Max Melchner and Michael Höse.
Three absorption images of Rb87 atoms, taken after 35 milliseconds of time-of-flight; the hotter the colour the higher the optical density. Left: thermal cloud at approximately 180 nanokelvin. Middle: the condensate is starting to peak above the thermal background. Right: almost pure condensate.