1000 times closer to a continuous atom laser: Steady-state strontium with unity phase-space density

This thesis describes the Strontium Continuous Atom Laser (SrCAL) machine that we built and the many lessons we learned. The path to a steady-state Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is uncharted. To navigate us there we designed and built a unique and flexible strontium quantum gas machine, a machine designed from the beginning to be a steady-state device. Few non-alkali quantum gas machines have ever been built and only a handful of them are for strontium, so making a new quantum gas machine is always a challenge. Learning how to build such a machine is not something you will learn in class, or from the literature. The best resources we have are the theses of those who came before us so an important part of this thesis is to document some of that hard won knowledge, to aid future builders in the construction of both pulsed and steady-state degenerate gas machines. This thesis also describes the technical detail needed for future users of SrCAL to wield this tool with mastery