Designing an Optical Dipole Trap for the Creation of Bose-Einstein Condensates

Bose-Einstein condensates have been produced with many different configurations of magnetic, optical, and hybrid traps. Pure optical dipole traps have the possibility of providing a spin state independent trapping potential, which is necessary in many BEC experiments. We are currently designing a red-detuned, single focused-beam dipole trap to be used in the production of BECs. The BEC is to be formed from rubidium-87 atoms. The lab currently has a magneto-optical trap and an Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap in place. The dipole trap will be the last step in the process to create a BEC. It will be formed with a single pass of a Yb fiber laser at 1064 nm. We developed a model for the dipole trap potential in mathematica. Using this model, we were able to see that our current lab configuration has the possibility of producing a dipole trap that will allow for Bose-Einstein condensation.