A Compact, Transportable, Microchip-Based System for High Repetition Rate Production of Bose-Einstein Condensates

We present a compact, transportable system that produces Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) near the surface of an integrated atom microchip. Occupying a volume of 0.4~m$^{3}$ and consuming an average power of 525~W, the system contains all of the components needed to produce and image BECs, including an ultra-high vacuum system, lasers, data acquisition hardware, electronics, and imaging equipment. RF evaporative cooling forms nearly-pure condensates containing 1.9$\times $10$^{4} \quad ^{87}$Rb atoms in the $\vert $F=2,m$_{F}$=+2$\rangle $ ground hyperfine state. With trap frequencies of several kHz, evaporative cooling times as short as 1.5~s have been used to create BECs, resulting in production repetition rates as high as 0.3~Hz. The system can be easily reconfigured for use with atom chips having wire patterns designed for different applications. As such, it can serve as a standardized platform for a variety of portable experiments that utilize ultracold matter.