Detection of Small Spinor Condensates in Optical Traps

We are interested in studying spinor physics of small BECs beyond the mean field regime. We investigate $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) with less than $<$100 atoms that are created in the optical lattice of a CO$_{2}$ laser. Measuring small numbers of atoms requires state of the art atomic detection techniques. We have explored the limits of absorption and fluorescence imaging techniques for observing small condensates. We will present the results of our investigation and discuss the applications to studies of small condensates and their spinor interactions.