Spontaneous Formation of Antiferromagnetic Vortex Lattice in a Fast Rotating BEC with Dipole Interactions

When a Bose-Einstein condensate is set to rotate,superfluid vortices will be formed,which finally condense into a vortex lattice as the rotation frequency further increases.We show that the dipole-dipole interactions renormalize the short-range interaction strength and result in a distinction between interactions of parallel-polarized atoms and interactions of antiparallel-polarized atoms.This effect may lead to a spontaneous breakdown of the rapidly rotating Bose condensate into a novel anti-ferromagnetic-like vortex lattice.The upward-polarized Bose condensate forms a vortex lattice,which is staggered against a downward-polarized vortex lattice.A phase diagram related to the coupling strength is obtained.     

Formation and decay of vortex lattices in Bose-Einstein condensates at finite temperatures

The dynamics of vortex lattices in stirred Bose-Einstein condensates have been studied at finite temperatures. The decay of the vortex lattice was observed nondestructively by monitoring the centrifugal distortions of the rotating condensate. The formation of the vortex lattice could be deduced from the increasing contrast of the vortex cores observed in ballistic expansion. In contrast to the decay, the formation of the vortex lattice is insensitive to temperature change.     

磁偶极相互作用下玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的奇特涡旋晶格结构

文章简要地介绍了玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中出现的涡旋和铬原子玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的实验研究进展，还介绍了文章作者的一项最新的理论工作。研究指出，由于铬原子磁偶极相互作用的影响，凝聚体中将出现奇特的各向异性的涡旋晶格结构。     

Solitary Excitations of Dipolar Bosons in Optical Lattice under Magnetic Fields

We obtain the multisolitary solutions of the extended Bose-Hubbard model which describes dipolar BoseEinstein condensates in optical lattices under time-dependent magnetic fields, and indicate that the nonlinearity is due to both on-site short-range interactions and also (long-range) dipole-dipole interactions which can act between neighboring sites. The discrete breathers as nonlinear excitations are always oscillatory in time and can also be spatially localized,while the oscillatory frequencies are determined by an external field. We show that these excitations will be observable and discuss how the parameters can be tuned in future experiments.     

Solitary Excitations of Dipolar Bosons in Optical Lattice under Magnetic Fields

We obtain the multisolitary solutions of the extended Bose-Hubbard model which describes dipolar Bose- Einstein condensates in optical lattices under time-dependent magnetic fields, and indicate that the nonlinearity is due to both on-site short-range interactions and also （long-range） dipole-dipole interactions which can act between neighboring sites. The discrete breathers as nonlinear excitations are always oscillatory in time and can also be spatially localized, while the oscillatory frequencies are determined by an external field. We show that these excitations will be observable and discuss how the parameters can be tuned in future experiments.     

Observation of vortex pinning in Bose-Einstein condensates

We report the observation of vortex pinning in rotating gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates. Vortices are pinned to columnar pinning sites created by a corotating optical lattice superimposed on the rotating Bose-Einstein condensates. We study the effects of two types of optical lattice: triangular and square. In both geometries we see an orientation locking between the vortex and the optical lattices. At sufficient intensity the square optical lattice induces a structural crossover in the vortex lattice.     

Fermionic stabilization and density-wave ground state of a polar condensate

We examine the stability of a trapped dipolar condensate mixed with a single-component fermion gas at T=0. Whereas pure dipolar condensates with a small s-wave interaction are unstable even at small dipole-dipole interaction strength, we find that the admixture of fermions can significantly stabilize them, depending on the strength of the boson-fermion interaction. Within the stable regime we find a region where a ground state is characterized by a density wave along the soft trap direction.     

Spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate under rotation

We examine the combined effects of Rashba spin-orbit (SO) coupling and rotation on trapped spinor Bose-Einstein condensates. The nature of single particle states is thoroughly examined in the Landau level basis and is shown to support the formation of a half-quantum vortex. In the presence of weak s-wave interactions, the ground state at strong SO coupling develops ringlike structures with domains whose number shows step behavior with increasing rotation. For the fast rotation case, the vortex pattern favors a triangular lattice, accompanied by density depletion in the central region and a weakened Skyrmionic character as the SO coupling is enhanced. Giant vortex formation is facilitated when SO coupling and rotation are both strong.     

Bloch oscillations and mean-field effects of Bose-Einstein condensates in 1D optical lattices

We have loaded Bose-Einstein condensates into one-dimensional, off-resonant optical lattices and accelerated them by chirping the frequency difference between the two lattice beams. For small values of the lattice well depth, Bloch oscillations were observed. Reducing the potential depth further, Landau-Zener tunneling out of the lowest lattice band, leading to a breakdown of the oscillations, was also studied and used as a probe for the effective potential resulting from mean-field interactions as predicted by Choi and Niu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2022 (1999)]. The effective potential was measured for various condensate densities and trap geometries, yielding good qualitative agreement with theoretical calculations.     

Superfluidlike motion of vortices in light condensates

We demonstrate, through numerical simulations, the generation of stable vortex lattices in light condensates. This can be achieved by propagating several concentric laser beams with nested vortices of different topological charges in an optical material with a cubic-quintic nonlinearity. We have considered several initial conditions, and in all the cases the net topological charges of the resulting lattice is equal to the topological charge of the initial outer vortex. The lattice exhibits rotation similar to vortex motion in superfluids. These vortex arrays could be used to implement all-optical photonic crystal fibers. Our results also apply to Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of three-body elastic interactions.     

Comparing contact and dipolar interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We have measured the relative strength epsilon dd of the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction compared with the contact interaction in a dipolar chromium Bose-Einstein condensate. We analyze the asymptotic velocities of expansion of the condensate with different orientations of the atomic magnetic moments. By comparing the experimental results with numerical solutions of the hydrodynamic equations for dipolar condensates, we obtain epsilon dd = 0.159+/-0.034. We use this result to determine the s-wave scattering length a = (5.08+/-1.06 x 10(-9)) m = (96+/-20) a0 of 52Cr. This is fully consistent with our previous measurements on the basis of Feshbach resonances and therefore confirms the validity of the theoretical approach used to describe the dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate.     

Nonequilibrium effects of anisotropic compression applied to vortex lattices in bose-einstein condensates

We have studied the dynamics of large vortex lattices in a dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensate. While undisturbed lattices have a regular hexagonal structure, large-amplitude quadrupolar shape oscillations of the condensate are shown to induce a wealth of nonequilibrium lattice dynamics. When exciting an m=-2 mode, we observe shifting of lattice planes, changes of lattice structure, and sheetlike structures in which individual vortices appear to have merged. Excitation of an m=+2 mode dissolves the regular lattice, leading to randomly arranged but still strictly parallel vortex lines.     

Vortex lattice transitions in cyclic spinor condensates

We study the energetics of vortices and vortex lattices produced by rotation in the cyclic phase of F=2 spinor condensates. In addition to the familiar triangular lattice predicted by Tkachenko for 4He, many more complex lattices appear in this system as a result of the spin degree of freedom. In particular, we predict a magnetic-field-driven transition from a triangular lattice to a honeycomb lattice. Other transitions and lattice geometries are driven at constant field by changes in the temperature-dependent ratio of charge and spin stiffnesses, including a transition through an aperiodic vortex structure. Finally, we compute the renormalization of the ratio of the spin and charge stiffnesses from thermal fluctuations using a nonlinear sigma model analysis.     

Vortex-lattice dynamics in rotating spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We observe interlaced square vortex lattices in rotating dilute-gas spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). After preparing a hexagonal vortex lattice in a one-component BEC in an internal atomic state |1, we coherently transfer a fraction of the superfluid to a different 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. The stability of the square structure is proved by its response to applied shear perturbations. An interference technique shows 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.     

Two-component Bose-Einstein condensates with a large number of vortices

We consider the condensate wave function of a rapidly rotating two-component Bose gas with an equal number of particles in each component. If the interactions between like and unlike species are very similar (as occurs for two hyperfine states of (87)Rb or (23)Na) we find that the two components contain identical rectangular vortex lattices, where the unit cell has an aspect ratio of sqrt[3], and one lattice is displaced to the center of the unit cell of the other. Our results are based on an exact evaluation of the vortex lattice energy in the large angular momentum (or quantum Hall) regime.     

Vortex-lattice melting in a one-dimensional optical lattice

We investigate quantum fluctuations of a vortex lattice in a one-dimensional optical lattice for realistic numbers of particles and vortices. Our method gives full access to all the modes of the vortex lattice and we discuss in particular the Bloch bands of the Tkachenko modes. Because of the small number of particles in the pancake Bose-Einstein condensates at every site of the optical lattice, finite-size effects become very important. Therefore, the fluctuations in the vortex positions are inhomogeneous and the melting of the lattice occurs from the outside inwards. By looking into correlations between neighboring vortices, we identify new solid and liquid phases. Tunneling between neighboring pancakes substantially reduces the inhomogeneity as well as the size of the fluctuations.     

Transfer and storage of vortex states in light and matter waves

We theoretically explore the transfer of vortex states between atomic Bose-Einstein condensates and optical pulses using ultraslow and stopped light techniques. We find shining a coupling laser on a rotating two-component ground state condensate with a vortex lattice generates a probe laser field with optical vortices. We also find that optical vortex states can be robustly stored in the atomic superfluids for times, in Rb-87 condensates, limited only by the ground state coherence time.     

Phases of atom-molecule vortex matter

We study ground state vortex configurations in a rotating atom-molecule Bose-Einstein condensate. It is found that the coherent coupling between the atomic and molecular condensates can render a pairing of atomic and molecular vortices into a composite structure that resembles a carbon dioxide molecule. Structural phase transitions of vortex lattices are also explored through different physical parameters including the rotational frequency of the system.     

Asymmetric vortex solitons in nonlinear periodic lattices

We reveal the existence of asymmetric vortex solitons in ideally symmetric periodic lattices and show how such nonlinear localized structures describing elementary circular flows can be analyzed systematically using the energy-balance relations. We present the examples of rhomboid, rectangular, and triangular vortex solitons on a square lattice and also describe novel coherent states where the populations of clockwise and anticlockwise vortex modes change periodically due to a nonlinearity-induced momentum exchange through the lattice. Asymmetric vortex solitons are expected to exist in different nonlinear lattice systems, including optically induced photonic lattices, nonlinear photonic crystals, and Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices.     

Dynamical Stability of Gap Soliton of One-Dimensional Condensate in Optical Lattices with Strong Interatomic Interaction

By developing the multiple scales method, we analytically study the dynamics properties of gap soliton of Bose- Einstein condensate in optical lattices. It is shown that the gap soliton will appear at Brillouin zone edge of linear band spectrum of the condensates when the interatomic interaction strength is larger than the lattice depth. Moreover, the density of gap soliton starts to be relatively small, while it increases with time and becomes stable.