DEMONSTRATION OF NEUTRAL ATOM TRAPPING WITH MICROWAVES

We demonstrate trapping of neutral Cs atoms by the magnetic dipole for ce due to a microwave field. The trap is formed in a spherical microwa ve cavity tuned near the ground state hyperfine transition (9.193 GHz) . With a microwave power of 83 W, the trap is almost-equal-to 0.1 mK d eep. It is loaded with Cs atoms laser cooled to almost-equal-to 4 muK. We observe oscillatory motion of atoms in the trap at frequencies of 1-3 Hz. This type of trap has certain advantages for achieving the con ditions for Bose-Einstein condensation in hydrogen or the alkalis, bec ause it can confine atoms predominantly in the lowest energy spin stat e.