Pumping vortex into a Bose–Einstein condensate of heteronuclear molecules

Z F Xu,L You,R Q Wang

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/11/5/055019

Z F Xu, L You + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/11/5/055019

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Abstract

Heteronuclear molecules have attracted wide attention due to their permanent electric dipole moments. Analogous to atoms with magnetic dipoles, the existence of nonzero electric dipoles significantly enhances the possibilities and mechanisms for the control and design of quantum degenerate molecule systems with electric (E) fields. This work proposes a vortex creation mechanism inside a condensate of heteronuclear molecules through the adiabatic flipping of the axial bias of an analogous E-field Ioffe–Pritchard trap (IPT), extending the original protocol of Isoshima et al (2000 Phys. Rev. A 61 063610) for an atomic spinor condensate inside a magnetic (B)-field IPT. We provide both analytic proof and numerical simulations to illustrate the high fidelity operation of this vortex pump protocol. We hope our work provides stimulating experimental possibilities for active investigations in quantum degenerate molecule systems.

Highlights

The impressive progress in atomic quantum gases can be largely attributed to technical advances in the control of atomic quantum states utilizing electromagnetic interactions
Significant efforts have been directed toward the above ambitious goal, with the immediate pursuit from more recent endeavors targeted at the generation, control, and study of cold molecules. These endeavors include important successes such as the BCS to BEC cross-over due to tunable interactions induced through B-field magnetic Feshbach resonances and the production of quantum degenerate heteronuclear molecules in specific low lying ro-vibrational states of their electronic ground states [1]
We propose a simple mechanism to generate a vortex state, relying on the internal degrees of freedom of a heternuclear molecule, through adiabatically flipping the axial bias of an external E-field Ioffe-Pritchard trap (IPT) [3]

Summary

Introduction

The impressive progress in atomic quantum gases can be largely attributed to technical advances in the control of atomic quantum states utilizing electromagnetic interactions. Significant efforts have been directed toward the above ambitious goal, with the immediate pursuit from more recent endeavors targeted at the generation, control, and study of cold molecules These endeavors include important successes such as the BCS to BEC cross-over due to tunable interactions induced through B-field magnetic Feshbach resonances and the production of quantum degenerate heteronuclear molecules in specific low lying ro-vibrational states of their electronic ground states [1]. The internal rotational angular momentum of the molecule stays in the perpendicular plane of the molecule axis in the absence of an E-field Despite these differences, our study finds that the Isoshima, et al, protocol [4, 5, 6], originally developed for Bfield trapped atoms or molecules, remains effective for heteronuclear molecules in a E-field IPT. Much of these comparative studies and analogies will become clear from the materials presented in the third and fourth sections

Trapping a heteronuclear molecule with static electric field

Vortex creation in a condensate of heteronuclear molecules