Bose-Einstein condensation of large numbers of atoms in magnetic TOP trap

Summary form only given. We report the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation of a very large number of /sup 87/Rb atoms in a time orbiting potential (TOP) trap. We found that for such large samples, efficient cooling in the TOP trap is complicated to some extent by undesired losses of atoms at the orbiting magnetic field zero point, but that these difficulties can be overcome. In our experiments, we first load /sup 87/Rb atoms from a slow beam into a magneto-optic atom trap (MOT). Second, we then compress the atoms with a forced dark MOT, further cool them with optical molasses, and optically pump them into the desired state.