Pumping vortex into a Bose-Einstein condensate of heteronuclear molecules

Abstract

Heteronuclear molecules have attracted wide attention due to their permanent electric dipóle 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. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.