Hau, LeneBusch, B. D.Liu, ChienDutton, ZacharyBurns, MichaelGolovchenko, Jene2013-09-191998Hau, Lene Vestergaard, B. D. Busch, Chien Liu, Zachary Dutton, Michael M. Burns, and J. A. Golovchenko. 1998. Near-resonant spatial images of confined Bose-Einstein condensates in a 4-dee magnetic bottle. Physical Review A 58(1): R54-R57.1050-2947http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11064632We present quantitative measurements of the spatial density profile of Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium atoms confined in a 4-Dee magnetic bottle. The condensates are imaged in transmission with near-resonant laser light. We demonstrate that the Thomas-Fermi surface of a condensate can be determined to better than 1%. More generally, we obtain excellent agreement with mean-field theory. We conclude that precision measurements of atomic scattering lengths and interactions between phase-separated cold atoms in a harmonic trap can be performed with high precision using this method.en-USJournal Article2013-09-1910.1103/PhysRevA.58.R54