Production of Rubidium Bose–Einstein Condensate in an Optically Plugged Magnetic Quadrupole Trap

We experimentally produce the rubidium Bose–Einstein condensate in an optically plugged magnetic quadrupole trap. A far blue-detuned focused laser beam with a wavelength of 532 nm is plugged in the center of the magnetic quadrupole trap to increase the number of trapped atoms and to suppress the heating. An rf evaporative cooling in the magneto-optical hybrid trap is applied to decrease the atom temperature into degeneracy. The atom number of the condensate is 1.2(0.4)\times10^5 and the temperature is below 100 nK. We also study characteristic behaviors of the condensate, such as phase space density, condensate fraction and anisotropic expansion.