No description available.

No description available.

A series of steady-state water condensation experiments were conducted to determine the effects of Marangoni convection on the condensation flux. The interface was flat so that the results of the interfacial temperature discontinuities could be compared to past condensation experiments conducted under similar experimental conditions using a spherical interface. Two experimental methods were used. Method 1 was to vary the temperature in the cooling pipes (Tcp ) with the position of the interface relative to the cooling pipes fixed. Method 2 was to vary the position of the interface while Tcp was held constant. The interfacial temperature discontinuities in this study were approximately 2.3-9 times smaller in magnitude, than those measured using a spherical liquid-vapour interface. The experimental results showed that the condensation flux increased as thermocapillary convection increased (increase in interfacial temperature gradients and speed). This increase resulted in a 1.37-12.5 times enhancement in the condensation flux of pure water.

A series of steady-state water condensation experiments were conducted to determine the effects of Marangoni convection on the condensation flux. The interface was flat so that the results of the interfacial temperature discontinuities could be compared to past condensation experiments conducted under similar experimental conditions using a spherical interface. Two experimental methods were used. Method 1 was to vary the temperature in the cooling pipes (Tcp ) with the position of the interface relative to the cooling pipes fixed. Method 2 was to vary the position of the interface while Tcp was held constant. The interfacial temperature discontinuities in this study were approximately 2.3-9 times smaller in magnitude, than those measured using a spherical liquid-vapour interface. The experimental results showed that the condensation flux increased as thermocapillary convection increased (increase in interfacial temperature gradients and speed). This increase resulted in a 1.37-12.5 times enhancement in the condensation flux of pure water.

No description available.

No description available.

The construction of an apparatus capable of producing Bose-Einstein condensates marks a significant milestone in every experimental cold atom laboratory. In this thesis I describe the development of a system to create a Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}Rb$ in a Time-Orbiting Potential trap. I review the optical and magnetic techniques required to trap and cool an atomic sample under vacuum, motivating our decision to build a double MOT system comprised of a high-pressure ($10^{-9}$ torr) chamber to gather atoms and a low-pressure ($10^{-11}$ torr) chamber to cool atoms to degeneracy. By theoretically modeling the atom number and temperature inside the magnetic trap during evaporative cooling I demonstrate a simple approach to determining a cooling path that reaches the transition temperature. By making use of the condensates produced under these non-optimized conditions I determine the heating rate of the condensate in the TOP trap to be $300$ nK/s. I further use the condensates to make a more precise measurement of the TOP trap bias field. I improve upon the conventional evaporation path used in TOP trap experiments by introducing and optimizing additional bias field compression stages in between RF evaporation ramps. I demonstrate how, by adding these additional stages, the system is capable of reaching the BEC phase transition with a final atom number of $2\times 10^{5}$. In contrast, RF evaporation after only a single bias field ramp has yielded condensates with only $30\times 10^3$ atoms.

The construction of an apparatus capable of producing Bose-Einstein condensates marks a significant milestone in every experimental cold atom laboratory. In this thesis I describe the development of a system to create a Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}Rb$ in a Time-Orbiting Potential trap. I review the optical and magnetic techniques required to trap and cool an atomic sample under vacuum, motivating our decision to build a double MOT system comprised of a high-pressure ($10^{-9}$ torr) chamber to gather atoms and a low-pressure ($10^{-11}$ torr) chamber to cool atoms to degeneracy. By theoretically modeling the atom number and temperature inside the magnetic trap during evaporative cooling I demonstrate a simple approach to determining a cooling path that reaches the transition temperature. By making use of the condensates produced under these non-optimized conditions I determine the heating rate of the condensate in the TOP trap to be $300$ nK/s. I further use the condensates to make a more precise measurement of the TOP trap bias field. I improve upon the conventional evaporation path used in TOP trap experiments by introducing and optimizing additional bias field compression stages in between RF evaporation ramps. I demonstrate how, by adding these additional stages, the system is capable of reaching the BEC phase transition with a final atom number of $2\times 10^{5}$. In contrast, RF evaporation after only a single bias field ramp has yielded condensates with only $30\times 10^3$ atoms.

No description available.

No description available.