NEAR-RESONANT SPATIAL IMAGES OF CONFINED BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES INA 4-DEE MAGNETIC BOTTLE

We present quantitative measurements of the spatial density profile of Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium atoms confined in a 4-Dee magneti c bottle. The condensates an imaged in transmission with near-resonant laser light. We demonstrate that the Thomas-Fermi surface of a conden sate can be determined to better than 1%. More generally, we obtain ex cellent agreement with mean-field theory. We conclude that precision m easurements of atomic scattering lengths and interactions between phas e-separated cold atoms in a harmonic trap can be performed with high p recision using this method.