Loading a dressed Zeeman trap with cold atoms
Résumé
In this paper we report on our progress towards the realization of a quantum degenerate gas in two dimensions. Our goal is to transfer a BEC of 87Rb in a very anisotropic trap of oscillation frequencies $\omega_z \gg \omega_1, \omega_2$. Several schemes of such a trap exist. We focussed our attention to the proposal of Oliver Zobay and Barry Garraway published in 2001. The atoms firstly condensed in a Ioffe-Pritchard trap are transferred to an iso-B surface defined by a rf resonance. The upper Zeeman rf dressed states act as a trap at the iso-B surface surrounding the centre of the magnetic trap. The gravity pulls the atoms down in the bottom of the dressed trap and is responsible for pendulum oscillations of the trapped atomic cloud. This paper presents the characteristics of this trap loaded with very cold atoms.