No Arabic abstract
We study the formation of large vortex aggregates in a rapidly rotating dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensate. When we remove atoms from the rotating condensate with a tightly focused, resonant laser, the density can be locally suppressed, while fast circulation of a ring-shaped superflow around the area of suppressed density is maintained. Thus a giant vortex core comprising 7 to 60 phase singularities is formed. The giant core is only metastable, and it will refill with distinguishable single vortices after many rotation cycles. The surprisingly long lifetime of the core can be attributed to the influence of strong Coriolis forces in the condensate. In addition we have been able to follow the precession of off-center giant vortices for more than 20 cycles.
Repulsive laser potential pulses applied to vortex lattices of rapidly rotating Bose-Einstein condensates create propagating density waves which we have observed experimentally and modeled computationally to high accuracy. We have observed a rich variety of dynamical phenomena ranging from interference effects and shock-wave formation to anisotropic sound propagation.
The complete low-energy collective-excitation spectrum of vortex lattices is discussed for rotating Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation, yielding, e.g., the Tkachenko mode recently observed at JILA. The totally symmetric subset of these modes includes the transverse shear, common longitudinal, and differential longitudinal modes. We also solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii (TDGP) equation to simulate the actual JILA experiment, obtaining the Tkachenko mode and identifying a pair of breathing modes. Combining both the BdG and TDGP approaches allows one to unambiguously identify every observed mode.
We observe interlaced square vortex lattices in rotating two-component dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). After preparing a hexagonal vortex lattice in a single-component BEC in an internal state $|1>$ of $^{87}$Rb atoms, we coherently transfer a fraction of the superfluid to a different internal state $|2>$. The subsequent evolution of this pseudo-spin-1/2 superfluid towards a state of offset square lattices involves an intriguing interplay of phase-separation and -mixing dynamics, both macroscopically and on the length scale of the vortex cores, and a stage of vortex turbulence. Stability of the square lattice structure is confirmed via the application of shear perturbations, after which the structure relaxes back to the square configuration. We use an interference technique to show the spatial offset between the two vortex lattices. Vortex cores in either component are filled by fluid of the other component, such that the spin-1/2 order parameter forms a Skyrmion lattice.
We report the observation of vortex nucleation in a rotating optical lattice. A 87Rb 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 neighbouring condensates, such that vortices were observed upon ramping down the lattice depth and recombining the condensates.
We investigate a small vortex-lattice system of four co-rotating vortices in an atomic Bose--Einstein condensate and find that the vortex dynamics display chaotic behaviour after a system quench introduced by reversing the direction of circulation of a single vortex through a phase-imprinting process. By tracking the vortex trajectories and Lyapunov exponent, we show the onset of chaotic dynamics is not immediate, but occurs at later times and is accelerated by the close-approach and separation of all vortices in a scattering event. The techniques we develop could potentially be applied to create locally induced chaotic dynamics in larger lattice systems as a stepping stone to study the role of chaotic events in turbulent vortex dynamics.