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Science 13 February 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5353, pp. 1005 - 1007
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5353.1005
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Reports

Bosonic Stimulation in the Formation of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

H.-J. Miesner, D. M. Stamper-Kurn, M. R. Andrews, D. S. Durfee, S. Inouye, W. Ketterle

The formation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of a dilute atomic gas has been studied in situ with a nondestructive, time-resolved imaging technique. Sodium atoms were evaporatively cooled close to the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation and then suddenly quenched to below the transition temperature. The subsequent equilibration and condensate formation showed a slow onset distinctly different from simple relaxation. This behavior provided evidence for the process of bosonic stimulation, or coherent matter-wave amplification, crucial to the concept of an atom laser.

Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Superradiant Rayleigh Scattering from a Bose-Einstein Condensate.
S. Inouye, A. P. Chikkatur, D. M. Stamper-Kurn, J. Stenger, D. E. Pritchard, and W. Ketterle (1999)
Science 285, 571-574
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