Engineering vortex rings and systems for controlled studies of vortex interactions in Bose-Einstein condensates

Journal Article · Thu Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.72.0· OSTI ID:20786363

Ruostekoski, Janne ^[1]; Dutton, Zachary ^[2]

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1. School of Mathematics, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ (United Kingdom)
2. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)

We study controlled methods of preparing vortex configurations in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates and their use in the studies of fundamental vortex scattering, reconnection processes, and superfluid sound emission. We explore techniques of imprinting vortex rings by means of coherently driving internal atomic transitions with electromagnetic fields which exhibit singular phase profiles. In particular, we show that a vortex ring can be prepared by two focused co-propagating Gaussian laser beams. More complex vortex systems may also be imprinted by directly superposing simpler field configurations or by programming their phase profiles on optical holograms. We analyze specific examples of two merging vortex rings in a trapped two-species {sup 87}Rb gas. We calculate the radiated sound energy in the reconnection process and show that the vortex relaxation and the redistribution of sound energy can be controlled by the imprinting process. As another creation technique, we study engineering pairs of two-dimensional point vortices in the condensates using a 'light roadblock' in ultraslow light propagation. We show how this can be used to study vortex collisions in compressible superfluids and how these collisions result in energy dissipation via phonons and, sometimes, annihilation of vortex pairs.

• OSTI ID: 20786363
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 72, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.72.063626; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANNIHILATION
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
ENERGY LOSSES
HOLOGRAPHY
LASER RADIATION
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
PHONONS
PHOTON-ATOM COLLISIONS
RELAXATION
RUBIDIUM
RUBIDIUM 87
SCATTERING
SOUND WAVES
SUPERFLUIDITY
TRAPPING
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION
VORTICES