Evaporative cooling of a guided rubidium atomic beam

We report on our recent progress in the manipulation and cooling of a magnetically guided, high-flux beam of Rb-87 atoms. Typically, 7x10(9) atoms per second propagate in a magnetic guide providing a transverse gradient of 800 G/cm, with a temperature similar to 550 mu K, at an initial velocity of 90 cm/s. The atoms are subsequently slowed down to similar to 60 cm/s using an upward slope. The relatively high collision rate (5 s(-1)) allows us to start forced evaporative cooling of the beam, leading to a reduction of the beam temperature by a factor of 4, and a tenfold increase of the on-axis phase-space density.