Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 15: Poster I

A 15.36: Poster

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster

Density of states for a cold Bose gas in an optical dipole trap — •Lena Simon and Walter T. Strunz — Institut für theoretische Physik, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden

Optical dipole traps are frequently employed to provide confining potentials for neutral atoms, as practiced in the Helm group at the university of Freiburg. According to this experiment we study an ultracold Bose gas in an optical dipole trap consisting of one single focused laser beam. An analytical expression for the corresponding density of states beyond the usual harmonic approximation is obtained. We are thus able to determine the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation and find that it depends on a cutoff parameter. Moreover, we study the dynamics of plain and forced evaporative cooling and observe a significant deviation from the well-established harmonic approximation.