Fast production of Bose-Einstein condensates of metastable helium

We report on the Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable He-4 atoms using a hybrid approach, consisting of a magnetic quadrupole and an optical dipole trap. In our setup we cross the phase transition with 2 x 10(6) atoms, and we obtain pure condensates of 5 x 10(5) atoms in the optical trap. This approach to cooling He-4 provides enhanced cycle stability, large optical access to the atoms and results in the production of a condensate every 6 s-a factor 2 faster than the state of the art. This speed-up will significantly reduce the data acquisition time needed for the measurement of many particle correlations, made possible by the ability of metastable helium atoms to be detected individually.