2 research outputs found
Critical Rotation of an Annular Superfluid Bose Gas
We analyze the excitation spectrum of a superfluid Bose-Einstein condensate
rotating in a ring trap. We identify two important branches of the spectrum
related to outer and inner edge surface modes that lead to the instability of
the superfluid. Depending on the initial circulation of the annular condensate,
either the outer or the inner modes become first unstable. This instability is
crucially related to the superfluid nature of the rotating gas. In particular
we point out the existence of a maximal circulation above which the superflow
decays spontaneously, which cannot be explained by invoking the average speed
of sound.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, PRA Rapid Com
Rubidium-87 Bose-Einstein condensate in an optically plugged quadrupole trap
We describe an experiment to produce 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates in an
optically plugged magnetic quadrupole trap, using a blue-detuned laser. Due to
the large detuning of the plug laser with respect to the atomic transition, the
evaporation has to be carefully optimized in order to efficiently overcome the
Majorana losses. We provide a complete theoretical and experimental study of
the trapping potential at low temperatures and show that this simple model
describes well our data. In particular we demonstrate methods to reliably
measure the trap oscillation frequencies and the bottom frequency, based on
periodic excitation of the trapping potential and on radio-frequency
spectroscopy, respectively. We show that this hybrid trap can be operated in a
well controlled regime that allows a reliable production of degenerate gases.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure