Stable 85Rb Bose-Einstein condensates with widely tunable interactions

Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved in a magnetically trapped sample of Rb-85 atoms. Long lived condensates of up to 10(4) atoms have been produced by using a magnetic-field-induced Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the scattering length. This system provides new opportunities for the study of condensate physics. The variation of the scattering length near the resonance has been used to magnetically tune the condensate self-interaction energy over a wide range, extending from strong repulsive to large attractive interactions. When the interactions were switched from repulsive to attractive, the condensate shrank to below our resolution limit; and after similar to 5 ms emitted a burst of high-energy atoms.