Generation of high-winding-number superfluid circulation in Bose-Einstein condensates

Wilson, Kali E. and Samson, E. Carlo and Newman, Zachary L. and Anderson, Brian P. (2022) Generation of high-winding-number superfluid circulation in Bose-Einstein condensates. Physical Review A, 106 (3). 033319. ISSN 2469-9926 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.106.033319)

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Abstract

We experimentally and numerically demonstrate a method to generate multiply quantized superfluid circulation about an obstacle in highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). We experimentally achieve pinned superflow with winding numbers as high as 11, which persists for at least 4 s. Our method conceptually involves spiraling a blue-detuned laser beam, around and towards the center of the BEC, and is experimentally implemented by moving the BEC in a spiral trajectory around a stationary laser beam. This optical potential serves first as a repulsive stirrer to initiate superflow, and then as a pinning potential to transport the superfluid circulation within the BEC. The spiral technique can be used either to generate a high-winding-number persistent current, or for controlled placement of a cluster of singly quantized vortices of the same circulation. Thus, the technique may serve as a building block in experimental architectures to create on-demand vortex distributions in BECs.

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