Accepted Tuesday Oct 13, 2009
We report on the attainment of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) with ultracold strontium atoms. We use the 84Sr isotope, which has a low natural abundance but offers excellent scattering properties for evaporative cooling. Accumulation in a metastable state using a magnetic trap, narrow-line cooling, and straightforward evaporative cooling in an optical trap lead to pure condensates containing 1.5 ×105 atoms. This puts 84Sr in a prime position for future experiments on quantum-degenerate gases involving atomic two-electron systems.