No Arabic abstract
We describe an experiment to produce 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates in an optically plugged magnetic quadrupole trap, using a blue-detuned laser. Due to the large detuning of the plug laser with respect to the atomic transition, the evaporation has to be carefully optimized in order to efficiently overcome the Majorana losses. We provide a complete theoretical and experimental study of the trapping potential at low temperatures and show that this simple model describes well our data. In particular we demonstrate methods to reliably measure the trap oscillation frequencies and the bottom frequency, based on periodic excitation of the trapping potential and on radio-frequency spectroscopy, respectively. We show that this hybrid trap can be operated in a well controlled regime that allows a reliable production of degenerate gases.
We demonstrate a production of large-area $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) using a non-Gaussian optical dipole trap (ODT). The ODT is formed by focusing a symmetrically truncated Gaussian laser beam and it is shown that the beam clipping causes the trap geometry elongated and flattened along the beam axis direction. In the clipped-Gaussian ODT, an elongated, highly oblate BEC of $^{87}$Rb is generated with length and width of approximately $470~mutextrm{m}$ and $130~mutextrm{m}$, respectively, where the condensate healing length is estimated to be $xiapprox 0.25~mutextrm{m}$ at the trap center. The ODT is characterized to have a quartic trapping potential along the beam axis and the atom density of the condensate is uniform within 10% over $1000xi$ in the central region. Finally, we discuss the prospect of conducting vortex shedding experiments using the elongated condensate.
We report the spin texture formation resulting from the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction in a spin-2 $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. The spinor condensate is prepared in the transversely polarized spin state and the time evolution is observed under a magnetic field of 90 mG with a gradient of 3 mG/cm using Stern-Gerlach imaging. The experimental results are compared with numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which reveals that the observed spatial modulation of the longitudinal magnetization is due to the spin precession in an effective magnetic field produced by the dipole-dipole interaction. These results show that the dipole-dipole interaction has considerable effects even on spinor condensates of alkali metal atoms.
We demonstrate a two-dimensional atom interferometer in a harmonic magnetic waveguide using a Bose-Einstein condensate. Such an interferometer could measure rotation using the Sagnac effect. Compared to free space interferometers, larger interactions times and enclosed areas can in principle be achieved, since the atoms are not in free fall. In this implementation, we induce the atoms to oscillate along one direction by displacing the trap center. We then split and recombine the atoms along an orthogonal direction, using an off-resonant optical standing wave. We enclose a maximum effective area of 0.1 square mm, limited by fluctuations in the initial velocity and the coherence time of the interferometer. We argue that this arrangement is scalable to enclose larger areas by increasing the coherence time and then making repeated loops.
We theoretically show that the topology of a non-simply-connected annular atomic Bose-Einstein condensate enforces the inner surface waves to be always excited with outer surface excitations and that the inner surface modes are associated with induced vortex dipoles unlike the surface waves of a simply-connected one with vortex monopoles. Consequently, under stirring to drive an inner surface wave, a peculiar population oscillation between the inner and outer surface is generated regardless of annulus thickness. Moreover, a new vortex nucleation process by stirring is observed that can merge the inner vortex dipoles and outer vortex into a single vortex inside the annulus. The energy spectrum for a rotating annular condensate with a vortex at the center also reveals the distinct connection of the Tkachenko modes of a vortex lattice to its inner surface excitations.
The aim of this paper is to perform a numerical and analytical study of a rotating Bose Einstein condensate placed in a harmonic plus Gaussian trap, following the experiments of cite{bssd}. The rotational frequency $Omega$ has to stay below the trapping frequency of the harmonic potential and we find that the condensate has an annular shape containing a triangular vortex lattice. As $Omega$ approaches $omega$, the width of the condensate and the circulation inside the central hole get large. We are able to provide analytical estimates of the size of the condensate and the circulation both in the lowest Landau level limit and the Thomas-Fermi limit, providing an analysis that is consistent with experiment.