Coupling a Bose condensate to micromechanical oscillators

We describe the construction of a compact apparatus to investigate the interaction of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate and a micromechanical oscillator. The apparatus uses a double magneto-optical trap, Raman sideband cooling, and evaporative cooling to rapidly produce a $^{87}$Rb BEC in close proximity to a high Q membrane. The micromotion of the membrane results in small Zeeman shifts at the location of the BEC due to a magnetic domain attached to the oscillator. Detection of this micromotion by the condensate [1] results in a backaction on the membrane. We investigate prospects of using this backaction to generate nonclassical states of the mechanical oscillator [2]. \\[4pt] [1] M. Vengalattore {\em et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{98}, 200801 (2007);\\[0pt] [2] S. Singh {\em et al}, ``Quantifying measurement back-action on a macroscopic object: BEC magnetometry on mechanical oscillators.'' (to be published)