BEC in a time varying optical dipole trap

We have created BECs in a trap produced from a single high-powered (P$\sim$60~W) CO$_2$ laser beam. Atoms are loaded from a vapor cell MOT into a large volume dipole trap. Forced evaporation is performed by lowering the laser beam power while decresing the trap volume. This method enables us to maintian a sufficient elastic collision rate even at low temperatures. We will discuss the effects of trap volume and depth on the initial number of atoms loaded into our dipole trap as well as the limitations of our squeezing process and its effect on evaporation trajectory and condensate number.