@article {1297, title = {Sodium Bose-Einstein Condensates in an Optical Lattice}, journal = {Physical Review A}, volume = {72}, year = {2005}, month = {2005/10/10}, abstract = { The phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator has been observed in a $^{23}$Na Bose-Einstein condensate. A dye laser detuned $\approx 5$nm red of the Na $3^2$S$ \to 3^2$P$_{1/2}$ transition was used to form the three dimensional optical lattice. The heating effects of the small detuning as well as the three-body decay processes constrained the timescale of the experiment. Certain lattice detunings were found to induce a large loss of atoms. These loss features were shown to be due to photoassociation of atoms to vibrational levels in the Na$_2$ $(1) ^3\Sigma_g^+$ state. }, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.72.043604}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0507288v1}, author = {K. Xu and Y. Liu and J. R. Abo-Shaeer and T. Mukaiyama and J. K. Chin and D. E. Miller and W. Ketterle and Kevin M. Jones and Eite Tiesinga} }