Optical tweezers for vortex rings in Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We study formation and stabilization of vortex rings in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. We suggest a novel approach for generating and trapping of vortex rings by 'optical tweezers'--two blue-detuned optical beams forming a toroidal void in the bulk of a magnetically or optically confined condensate cloud. We demonstrate that matter-wave vortex rings trapped within the void are energetically and dynamically stable. Our theoretical findings suggest the possibility for generation, stabilization, and nondestructive manipulation of quantized vortex rings in experimentally feasible trapping configurations.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms in a uniform potential
• Stationary and non-stationary fluid flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate through a penetrable barrier
• Nonlinear quantum piston for the controlled generation of vortex rings and soliton trains

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Twisted toroidal vortex-solitons in inhomogeneous media with repulsive nonlinearity
• Blue-detuned optical ring trap for Bose-Einstein condensates based on conical refraction
• Vortices in a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate with a rotating weak link
• Sagnac interferometry with coherent vortex superposition states in exciton-polariton condensates
• Stable Hopf solitons in rotating Bose-Einstein condensates
• Stochastic phase slips in toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates
• Transport of ultracold atoms between concentric traps via spatial adiabatic passage
• Nonlinear dynamics of Josephson vortices in merging superfluid rings
• Symmetry breaking in interacting ring-shaped superflows of Bose-Einstein condensates
• Collective oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate induced by a vortex ring
• Acoustic analogue of Hawking radiation in quantized circular superflows of Bose-Einstein condensates