We present a method for the effective preparation of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into the excited bands of an optical lattice via a standing-wave pulse sequence. With our method, the BEC can be ...prepared in either a single Bloch state in a excited-band, or a coherent superposition of states in different bands. Our scheme is experimentally demonstrated by preparing a \(^{87}\)Rb BEC into the \(d\)-band and the superposition of \(s\)- and \(d\)-band states of a one-dimensional optical lattice, within a few tens of microseconds. We further measure the decay of the BEC in the \(d\)-band state, and carry an analytical calculation for the collisional decay of atoms in the excited-band states. Our theoretical and experimental results consist well.
The weather at Xinglong Observing Station, where the Guo Shou Jing Telescope (GSJT) is located, is strongly affected by the monsoon climate in north-east China. The LAMOST survey strategy is ...constrained by these weather patterns. In this paper, we present a statistics on observing hours from 2004 to 2007, and the sky brightness, seeing, and sky transparency from 1995 to 2011 at the site. We investigate effects of the site conditions on the survey plan. Operable hours each month shows strong correlation with season: on average there are 8 operable hours per night available in December, but only 1-2 hours in July and August. The seeing and the sky transparency also vary with seasons. Although the seeing is worse in windy winters, and the atmospheric extinction is worse in the spring and summer, the site is adequate for the proposed scientific program of LAMOST survey. With a Monte Carlo simulation using historical data on the site condition, we find that the available observation hours constrain the survey footprint from 22h to 16h in right ascension; the sky brightness allows LAMOST to obtain the limit magnitude of V = 19.5mag with S/N = 10.