Observation of spinor dynamics in optically trapped 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates -: art. no. 140403

We measure spin mixing of F = 1 and F = 2 spinor condensates of Rb-87 atoms confined in an optical trap. We determine the spin mixing time to be typically less than 600 ms and observe spin population oscillations. The equilibrium spin configuration in the F = I manifold is measured for different magnetic fields and found to show ferromagnetic behavior for low field gradients. An F = 2 condensate is created by microwave excitation from the F = 1 manifold, and this spin-2 condensate is observed to decay exponentially with time constant 250 ms. Despite the short lifetime in the F = 2 manifold, spin mixing of the condensate is observed within 50 ms.