Observation of Vortex Nucleation in a Rotating Two-Dimensional Lattice of Bose-Einstein Condensates
- 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, Vol. 104, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.050404; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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