Abstract
We report the observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating optical lattice. A 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 neighboring condensates, such that vortices were observed upon ramping down the lattice depth and recombining the condensates.
- Received 4 November 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.050404
©2010 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Rotating condensates show new vortex behavior
Published 16 February 2010
Acousto-optical techniques can be used to access a new regime of vortex nucleation in condensates in optical lattices with deep potential wells.
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