We observed the transition to BEC for ¹⁶²Dy atoms!
Our dipolar BECs are made up at the moment by up to 3⨯10⁴ atoms. Atoms from the MOT are transferred into an in-vacuum optical resonator where we perform a first evaporation down to a few μK. Afterwards, we load the atoms in a crossed optical trap and condensation temperature is reached by evaporation ramps. The atomic dipoles are aligned along the vertical direction by an uniform magnetic field of a few Gauss and the vertical trapping frequency is higher than the horizontal ones to prevent dipolar collapse. The transition temperature for our trapping potential is below 100 nK.