Observation of Vortex Nucleation in a Rotating Two-Dimensional Lattice of Bose-Einstein Condensates

Journal Article · Fri Feb 05 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.050404· OSTI ID:21386775

Williams, R A; Al-Assam, S; Foot, C J ^[1]

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1. Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU (United Kingdom)

We report the observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating optical lattice. A {sup 87}Rb 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.

• OSTI ID: 21386775
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 104; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
CRITICAL FREQUENCY
JOSEPHSON EFFECT
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MOTION
NUCLEATION
POTENTIALS
ROTATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VORTICES