Experimental apparatus. This is a view of the vacuum chamber where we trap, cool, and Bose condense sodium atoms. As you can see, there are many wires and tubes that surround the experiment. Many of these wires lead to magnetic coils which are used to trap the atoms, accelerate the atoms, and to cancel out the earth's magnetic field. Some of the tubes carry water to cool the magnets, or serve to protect fiber-optic cables which bring light to probe the atoms from the laser room next door. The large black tube that you can see in running down from just below the center of the photo carries liquid nitrogen which is used to cool several cold plates which help to maintain the 10 E-12 torr vacuum.

Atoms start out in the oven, which is on the far left-hand side of the table (obscured by wires). These atoms are slowed down by a laser beam which enteres the vacuum chamber through a window which is just right of the center of this photo (it looks like a white blob with a dark spot in the center). Atoms are trapped and cooled in the middle of the chamber, slightly to the left of center in the photo. Behind the experiment you can see a blue wall. Just in front of that wall are the two computers which control the experiment.