Observation of Topologically Stable 2D Skyrmions in an Antiferromagnetic Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

Jae-yoon Choi, Woo Jin Kwon, and Yong-il Shin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 035301 – Published 19 January 2012

Abstract

We present the creation and time evolution of two-dimensional Skyrmion excitations in an antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Using a spin rotation method, the Skyrmion spin textures were imprinted on a sodium condensate in a polar phase, where the two-dimensional Skyrmion is topologically protected. The Skyrmion was observed to be stable on a short time scale of a few tens of ms but to dynamically deform its shape and eventually decay to a uniform spin texture. The deformed spin textures reveal that the decay dynamics involves breaking the polar phase inside the condensate without having topological charge density flow through the boundary of the finite-sized sample. We discuss the possible formation of half-quantum vortices in the deformation process.

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  • Received 16 October 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.035301

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jae-yoon Choi, Woo Jin Kwon, and Yong-il Shin*

  • Center for Subwavelength Optics and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea

  • *yishin@snu.ac.kr

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 3 — 20 January 2012

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