High-Performance Sodium Bose–Einstein Condensate Apparatus with a Hybrid Trap and Long-Distance Magnetic Transfer

We report on the production of large sodium Bose–Einstein condensates in a hybrid of magnetic quadrupole and optical dipole trap. With an optimized spin-flip Zeeman slower, 2 × 10 10 sodium atoms are captured in the magneto-optical trap (MOT). A long distance magnetic transfer setup moves the cold atom over 46 cm from the MOT chamber to the UHV science chamber, which provides great optical access and long conservative trap lifetime. After evaporative cooling in the hybrid trap, we produce nearly pure condensates of 1 × 10 7 atoms with lifetime of 80 s in the optical dipole trap.