A Bose-Einstein condensate is created in a simple and robust miniature Ioffe-Pritchard trap, the so-called Z trap. This trap follows from the mere combination of a Z-shaped current carrying wire and a homogeneous bias field. The experimental procedure allows condensation of typically 3 × 10 5 87 Rb atoms in the |F = 2, mF = 2 state close to any mirroring surface, irrespective of its structure, thus it is ideally suited as a source for cold atom physics near surfaces.

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