Alternative route to Bose-Einstein condensation of two-electron atoms

We present a route to Bose-Einstein condensation devised for two-electron atoms, which do not admit practicable cooling techniques based upon narrow intercombination lines. A dipole trap for super(40)Ca atoms in the singlet ground state is loaded from a moderately cold source of metastable triplet atoms via spatially and energetically selective optical pumping permitting 4 orders of magnitude increase of the phase-space density. Further cooling to quantum degeneracy is achieved by forced evaporation optimized to minimize three-body losses. In a combined loading and evaporation cycle of less than 3 s we are able to condense 3000 atoms.