The optical manipulation of matter-wave vortices: An analogue of circular dichroism

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how optical vortices can transfer angular momentum to Bose-Einstein condensates, enabling optical control of matter-wave vortices and revealing a circular dichroism-like effect for detecting vortex properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for manipulating and detecting matter-wave vortices using optical orbital angular momentum, highlighting a circular dichroism-like phenomenon in atomic superfluids.

Findings

Transition rate depends on optical vortex handedness

Method allows detection of vortex presence and sign

Partial condensate used for measurement

Abstract

The transfer of orbital angular momentum from an optical vortex to an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate changes the vorticity of the condensate. The spatial mismatch between initial and final center-of-mass wavefunctions of the condensate influences significantly the two-photon optical dipole transition between corresponding states. We show that the transition rate depends on the handedness of the optical orbital angular momentum leading to optical manipulation of matter-wave vortices and circular dichroism-like effect. Based on this effect, we propose a method to detect the presence and sign of matter-wave vortex of atomic superfluids. Only a portion of the condensate is used in the proposed detection method leaving the rest in its initial state.