Observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating two-dimensional lattice of Bose-Einstein condensates

We report the observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating optical lattice. A 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate was loaded into a static two-dimensional lattice and the rotation frequency of the lattice was then increased from zero. We studied how vortex nucleation depended on optical lattice depth an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Williams, R A, Al-Assam, S, Foot, C J
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 06.01.2010
Subjects
Bose-Einstein condensates
Chemical potential
Dependence
Nucleation
Optical lattices
Organic chemistry
Physics - Quantum Gases
Rotation
Vortices
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Summary:We report the observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating optical lattice. A 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate was loaded into a static two-dimensional lattice and the rotation frequency of the lattice was then increased from zero. We studied how vortex nucleation depended on optical lattice depth and rotation frequency. For deep lattices above the chemical potential of the condensate we observed a linear dependence of the number of vortices created with the rotation frequency,even below the thermodynamic critical frequency required for vortex nucleation. At these lattice depths the system formed an array of Josephson-coupled condensates. The effective magnetic field produced by rotation introduced characteristic relative phases between neighbouring condensates, such that vortices were observed upon ramping down the lattice depth and recombining the condensates.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1001.0865