Efficient production of an 87Rb F = 2, mF = 2 Bose-Einstein condensate in a hybrid trap

Abstract: We have realized Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of 87Rb in the F=2, m_F=2 hyperfine substate in a hybrid trap, consisting of a quadrupole magnetic field and a single optical dipole beam. The symmetry axis of the quadrupole magnetic trap coincides with the optical beam axis, which gives stronger axial confinement than previous hybrid traps. After loading 2x10^6 atoms at 14 muK from a quadrupole magnetic trap into the hybrid trap, we perform efficient forced evaporation and reach the onset of BEC at a temperature of 0.5 muK and with 4x10^5 atoms. We also obtain thermal clouds of 1x10^6 atoms below 1 muK in a pure single beam optical dipole trap, by ramping down the magnetic field gradient after evaporative cooling in the hybrid trap.