Abstract
We observe phononlike excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a dilute atomic gas. Rb atoms are optically trapped and precooled, loaded into a magnetic trap, and then evaporatively cooled through the BEC phase transition to form a condensate. We excite the condensate by applying an inhomogeneous oscillatory force with adjustable frequency and symmetry. We have observed modes with different angular momenta and different energies and have studied how their characteristics depend on interaction energy. We find that the condensate excitations persist longer than their counterparts in uncondensed clouds.
- Received 23 May 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.420
©1996 American Physical Society
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This article appears in the following collection:
Letters from the Past - A PRL Retrospective
2008 marked PRL’s 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations a collection of milestone Letters was started. The collection contains Letters that have made long-lived contributions to physics, either by announcing significant discoveries, or by initiating new areas of research.
