Observation of vortex formation in an oscillating trapped Bose-Einstein condensate

Year: 2009

Authors: Henn E., Seman J., Ramos F., Caracanhas M., Castilho P., Olmpio E.P., Roati G., Magalhaes D.V., Magalhaes K.M.F., Bagnato V.S.

Autors Affiliation: Instituto de Física de São Carlos, USP, C.P. 369, São Carlos 13560-970, SP, Brazil; LENS and Dipartamento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, and INFM-CNR, Via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

Abstract: We report on the observation of vortex formation in a Bose-Einstein condensate of (87)Rb atoms. Vortices are generated by superimposing an oscillating excitation to the trapping potential introduced by an external magnetic field. For small amplitudes of the external excitation field we observe a bending of the cloud axis. Increasing the amplitude we observe formation of a growing number of vortices in the sample. Shot-to-shot variations in both vortex number and position within the condensed cloud are observed, probably due to the intrinsic vortex nucleation dynamics. We discuss the possible formation of vortices and antivortices in the sample as well as possible mechanisms for vortex nucleation.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 79 (4)      Pages from: 043618  to: 043618

More Information: We acknowledge J. Dalibard (ENS-France), S.R. Muniz (NIST), and V.I. Yukalov (Dubna-Russia) for fruitful discussions. We thank M. Modugno for the preliminary 2D simulation and useful discussions on the theoretical investigation of this subject. This work was supported by FAPESP (program CEPID), CAPES, and CNPq.
KeyWords: bending; Bose-Einstein condensation; nucleation; rubidium; vortices
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.79.043618

ImpactFactor: 2.866
Citations: 46
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