Shu Nagata, University of Chicago | Spiral Interference Pattern using Bose-Einstein condensates

A quantum vortex is a hole with a superfluid flowing around it. In quantum mechanics, this can be expressed as a wave function characterized by a phase factor. Here, we split a circular Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) into two parts: a circle in the middle surrounded by an outer ring. We create a quantum vortex in the inner BEC while leaving the outer BEC untouched. By doing so, we create a BEC with phase winding around the vortex hole on the inside and a BEC with no phase winding on the outside. By letting these two parts interfere with each other, we can obtain a spiral interference pattern. Since BECs are macroscopic matter waves, we can generate interference patterns by letting two BECs overlap with each other. This method can be applied to multiply quantized vortices, i.e., phase winding that is integer times larger than that of the one shown here, which leads to multiple spiral arms. In this image, the vortex is singly quantized so there is only one spiral arm. This work is a demonstration of a technique to visualize phase information in quantum matter. Contributors: Shu Nagata, Youjia Huang, Jay Jachinowski, Cheng Chin