The trickiest part was trapping a high enough density of atoms at a cold enough temperature, according to the team. Because the coldest atoms had a tendency to fall out of the center of the standard atom trap like marbles dropping through a funnel, Cornell designed a technique to move the funnel around. It's like playing keep-away with the atoms because the hole kept circulating faster than the atoms could respond,'' Cornell said. The 2,000 rubidium atoms in the condensate are in a strange condition, existing in a kind of smeared-out, overlapping stew, most of the properties of which are still a big unknown. The condensation is like an atomic counterpart to the laser because it puts a large number of atoms into the same quantum mechanical state, the scientists said.
Lasers cause a large number of photons to have identical energy and direction.
Wieman said he was surprised that the condensation appeared so dramatically. He added that the apparatus to conduct the experiment is not particularly exotic or expensive, so the results should be fairly easy to reproduce and confirm in other laboratories. In addition to being a fellow of JILA, Cornell is a senior scientist at NIST and an adjoint assistant professor of physics at CU-Boulder. Wieman is a fellow and former chairman of JILA, a professor of physics at CU-Boulder and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Both physicists are actively involved in teaching undergraduate and graduate students at CU-Boulder.