Recent Experiments in Ultracold Strontium

We present recent work toward achieving quantum degeneracy in Strontium. In the first stage of cooling, a MOT operating on the strong ($\Gamma $= (2$\pi )$* 32 MHz), $^{1}$S$_{0}\to ^{1}$P$_{1}$ transition cools 10$^{8}$ atoms to 2 mK. Approximately 50{\%} of these atoms are transferred to a second-stage MOT operating on the weaker ($\Gamma $= (2$\pi )$* 7.5 kHz) $^{1}$S$_{0}\to ^{3}$P$_{1}$ intercombination transition, further cooling the sample to 5 $\mu $K. Here we discuss transferring this sample to an optical dipole trap and using evaporative cooling techniques to reach quantum degeneracy.