Very cold trapped atoms in a vapor cell

A very cold sample of spin-polarized trapped atoms has been produced. The technique used dramatically simplifies the production of laser-cooled atoms. In this experiment, 1.8 x 10 to the 7th neutral cesium atoms were optically captured directly from a low-pressure vapor in a small glass cell. The less than 1 cu mm cloud of trapped atoms was cooled and loaded into a low-field magnetic trap in the same cell. The magnetically trapped atoms had an effective temperature as low as 1.1 + or - 0.2 micro-K, which is the lowest kinetic temperature ever observed and far colder than any previous sample of trapped atoms.