Large magnetic storage ring for Bose-Einstein condensates

Cold atomic clouds and Bose-Einstein condensates have been stored in a 100.3em0excm diameter vertically oriented magnetic ring. An azimuthal magnetic field enables low-loss propagation of atomic clouds over a total distance of 20.3em0exm, with a heating rate of less than 500.3em0exnK∕s. The vertical geometry was used to split an atomic cloud into two counter-rotating clouds which were recombined after one revolution. The system will be ideal for studying condensate collisions and ultimately Sagnac interferometry.