arXiv subjects

Sang Won Seo

Publications and source records attributed to Sang Won Seo.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Observation of wall-vortex composite defects in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We report the observation of spin domain walls bounded by half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions. A spinor condensate is initially prepared in the easy-plane polar phase, and then, suddenly quenched into the easy-axis polar phase. Domain walls are created via the spontaneous $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry breaking in the phase transition and the walls dynamically split into composite defects due to snake instability. The end points of the defects are identified as HQVs for the polar order parameter and the mass supercurrent in their proximity is demonstrated using Bragg scattering. In a strong quench regime, we observe that singly charged quantum vortices are formed with the relaxation of free wall-vortex composite defects. Our results demonstrate a nucleation mechanism for composite defects via phase transition dynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Critical spin superflow in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the critical dynamics of spin superflow in an easy-plane antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Spin-dipole oscillations are induced in a trapped condensate by applying a linear magnetic field gradient and we observe that the damping rate increases rapidly as the field gradient increases above a certain critical value. The onset of dissipation is found to be associated with the generation of dark-bright solitons due to the modulation instability of the counterflow of two spin components. Spin turbulence emerges as the solitons decay because of their snake instability. We identify another critical point for spin superflow, in which transverse magnon excitations are dynamically generated via spin-exchanging collisions, which leads to the transient formation of axial polar spin domains.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Observation of vortex-antivortex pairing in decaying 2D turbulence of a superfluid gas

In a two-dimensional (2D) classical fluid, a large-scale flow structure emerges out of turbulence, which is known as the inverse energy cascade where energy flows from small to large length scales. An interesting question is whether this phenomenon can occur in a superfluid, which is inviscid and irrotational by nature. Atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of highly oblate geometry provide an experimental venue for studying 2D superfluid turbulence, but their full investigation has been hindered due to a lack of the circulation sign information of individual quantum vortices in a turbulent sample. Here, we demonstrate a vortex sign detection method by using Bragg scattering, and we investigate decaying turbulence in a highly oblate BEC at low temperatures, with our lowest being $\sim 0.5 T_c$, where $T_c$ is the superfluid critical temperature. We observe that weak spatial pairing between vortices and antivortices develops in the turbulent BEC, which corresponds to the vortex-dipole gas regime predicted for high dissipation. Our results provide a direct quantitative marker for the survey of various 2D turbulence regimes in the BEC system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2017

Emergence and scaling of spin turbulence in quenched antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate the phase transition dynamics of a quasi-2D antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate from the easy-axis polar phase to the easy-plane polar phase, which is initiated by suddenly changing the sign of the quadratic Zeeman energy $q$. We observe the emergence and decay of spin turbulence and the formation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the quenched condensate. The characteristic time and length scales of the turbulence generation dynamics are proportional to $|q|^{-1/2}$ as inherited from the dynamic instability of the initial state. In the evolution of the spin turbulence, spin wave excitations develop from large to small length scales, suggesting a direct energy cascade, and the spin population for the axial polar domains exhibit a nonexponential decay. The final equilibrated condensate contains HQVs, and the number is found to increase and saturate with increasing $|q|$. Our results demonstrate the time-space scaling properties of the phase transition dynamics near the critical point and the peculiarities of the spin turbulence state of the antiferromagnetic spinor condensate.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Observation of von Kármán Vortex Street in an Atomic Superfluid Gas

We report on the experimental observation of vortex cluster shedding from a moving obstacle in an oblate atomic Bose-Einstein condensate. At low obstacle velocities $v$ above a critical value, vortex clusters consisting of two like-sign vortices are generated to form a regular configuration like a von Kármán street, and as $v$ is increased, the shedding pattern becomes irregular with many different kinds of vortex clusters. In particular, we observe that the Stouhal number associated with the shedding frequency exhibits saturation behavior with increasing $v$. The regular-to-turbulent transition of the vortex cluster shedding reveals remarkable similarities between a superfluid and a classical viscous fluid. Our work opens a new direction for experimental investigations of the superfluid Reynolds number characterizing universal superfluid hydrodynamics.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Optical pumping effect in absorption imaging of F=1 atomic gases

We report our study of the optical pumping effect in absorption imaging of $^{23}$Na atoms in the $F=1$ hyperfine spin states. Solving a set of rate equations for the spin populations in the presence of a probe beam, we obtain an analytic expression for the optical signal of the $F=1$ absorption imaging. Furthermore, we verify the result by measuring the absorption spectra of $^{23}$Na Bose-Einstein condensates prepared in various spin states with different probe beam pulse durations. The analytic result can be used in the quantitative analysis of $F=1$ spinor condensate imaging and readily applied to other alkali atoms with $I=3/2$ nuclear spin such as $^{87}$Rb.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2016

Collisional Dynamics of Half-Quantum Vortices in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

We present an experimental study on the interaction and dynamics of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in an antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. By exploiting the orbit motion of a vortex dipole in a trapped condensate, we perform a collision experiment of two HQV pairs, and observe that the scattering motions of the HQVs is consistent with the short-range vortex interaction that arises from nonsingular magnetized vortex cores. We also investigate the relaxation dynamics of turbulent condensates containing many HQVs, and demonstrate that spin wave excitations are generated by the collisional motions of the HQVs. The short-range vortex interaction and the HQV-magnon coupling represent two characteristics of the HQV dynamics in the spinor superfluid.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2016

Half-Quantum Vortices in an Antiferromagnetic Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate

We report on the observation of half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in the easy-plane polar phase of an antiferromagnetic spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. Using in situ magnetization-sensitive imaging, we observe that pairs of HQVs with opposite core magnetization are generated when singly charged quantum vortices are injected into the condensate. The dynamics of HQV pair formation is characterized by measuring the temporal evolutions of the pair separation distance and the core magnetization, which reveals the short-range nature of the repulsive interactions between the HQVs. We find that spin fluctuations arising from thermal population of axial magnon excitations do not significantly affect the HQV pair formation dynamics. Our results demonstrate the instability of a singly charged vortex in the antiferromagnetic spinor condensate.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Periodic shedding of vortex dipoles from a moving penetrable obstacle in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate vortex shedding from a moving penetrable obstacle in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate. The penetrable obstacle is formed by a repulsive Gaussian laser beam that has the potential barrier height lower than the chemical potential of the condensate. The moving obstacle periodically generates vortex dipoles and the vortex shedding frequency $f_v$ linearly increases with the obstacle velocity $v$ as $f_v=a(v-v_c)$, where $v_c$ is a critical velocity. Based on periodic shedding behavior, we demonstrate deterministic generation of a single vortex dipole by applying a short linear sweep of a laser beam. This method will allow further controlled vortex experiments such as dipole-dipole collisions.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Critical Velocity for Vortex Shedding in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

We present measurements of the critical velocity for vortex shedding in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate with a moving repulsive Gaussian laser beam. As a function of the barrier height $V_0$, the critical velocity $v_c$ shows a dip structure having a minimum at $V_0 \approx μ$, where $μ$ is the chemical potential of the condensate. At fixed $V_0\approx 7μ$, we observe that the ratio of $v_c$ to the speed of sound $c_s$ monotonically increases for decreasing $σ/ξ$, where $σ$ is the beam width and $ξ$ is the condensate healing length. The measured upper bound for $v_c/c_s$ is about 0.4, which is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a two-dimensional superflow past a circular cylinder. We explain our results with the density reduction effect of the soft boundary of the Gaussian obstacle, based on the local Landau criterion for superfluidity.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Relaxation of superfluid turbulence in highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensates

We investigate thermal relaxation of superfluid turbulence in a highly oblate Bose-Einstein condensate. We generate turbulent flow in the condensate by sweeping the center region of the condensate with a repulsive optical potential. The turbulent condensate shows a spatially disordered distribution of quantized vortices and the vortex number of the condensate exhibits nonexponential decay behavior which we attribute to the vortex pair annihilation. The vortex-antivortex collisions in the condensate are identified with crescent-shaped, coalesced vortex cores. We observe that the nonexponential decay of the vortex number is quantitatively well described by a rate equation consisting of one-body and two-body decay terms. In our measurement, we find that the local two-body decay rate is closely proportional to $T^2/μ$, where $T$ is the temperature and $μ$ is the chemical potential.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Scaling behavior of density fluctuations in an expanding quasi-2D degenerate Bose gas

We measure the power spectrum of density fluctuations emerged in a freely expanding quasi-two-dimensional (2D) degenerate Bose gas and investigate the scaling behavior of the spectrum for the expansion time. The power spectrum shows an oscillatory shape for long expansion times, where the spectral peak positions are observed to be shifted to lower spatial frequencies than the theoretical prediction for a non-interacting expansion case. We find the spectral peak positions in good agreement with the recent numerical simulation presented by Mazets [Phys. Rev. A 86, 055603 (2012)], where the atom-atom interactions are taken into account. We present a mean-field description of the interaction effect in the expansion dynamics and quantitatively account for the observed spectral peak shifts. The spectral shift is intrinsic to the free expansion of a quasi-2D Bose gas due to finite axial confinement. Finally, we investigate the defocussing effect in the power spectrum measurement.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Observation of a Geometric Hall Effect in a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate with a Skyrmion Spin Texture

For a spin-carrying particle moving in a spatially varying magnetic field, effective electromagnetic forces can arise due to the geometric phase associated with adiabatic spin rotation of the particle. We report the observation of a geometric Hall effect in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate with a skyrmion spin texture. Under translational oscillations of the spin texture, the condensate resonantly develops a circular motion in a harmonic trap, demonstrating the existence of an effective Lorentz force. When the condensate circulates, quantized vortices are nucleated in the boundary region of the condensate and the vortex number increases over 100 without significant heating. We attribute the vortex nucleation to the shearing effect of the effective Lorentz force from the inhomogeneous effective magnetic field.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Free expansion of quasi-2D Bose-Einstein condensates with quantized vortices

We observe that a density-depleted vortex core evolves into concentric density ripples in a freely expanding quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate. The atomic density of the expanding condensate rapidly reduces due to the fast expansion along the tightly confining axial direction, and thus the transverse expansion of the condensate is not significantly affected by the atom-atom interactions. We find that the observed density profiles of the vortex cores are in good quantitative agreement with numerical simulations assuming no interactions. We analyze the defocused images of the vortex cores, where defocussing is caused by the free fall of the condensate during the expansion time. In the defocused images, the vortex core becomes magnified and appears to be filled after a certain expansion time which depends on the vortex charge number.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2013

Observation of Thermally Activated Vortex Pairs in a Quasi-2D Bose Gas

We measure the in-plane distribution of thermally activated vortices in a trapped quasi-2D Bose gas, where we enhance the visibility of density-depleted vortex cores by radially compressing the sample before releasing the trap. The pairing of vortices is revealed by the two-vortex spatial correlation function obtained from the vortex distribution. The vortex density decreases gradually as temperature is lowered, and below a certain temperature, a vortex-free region emerges in the center of the sample. This shows the crossover from a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase containing vortex-pair excitations to a vortex-free Bose-Einstein condensate in a finite-size 2D system.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2012

Probing Phase Fluctuations in a 2D Degenerate Bose Gas by Free Expansion

We measure the power spectrum of the density distribution of a freely expanding 2D degenerate Bose gas, where irregular density modulations gradually develop due to the initial phase fluctuations in the sample. The spectrum has an oscillatory shape, where the peak positions are found to be independent of temperature and show scaling behavior in the course of expansion. The relative intensity of phase fluctuations is estimated from the normalized spectral peak strength and observed to decrease at lower temperatures, confirming the thermal nature of the phase fluctuations. We investigate the relaxation dynamics of nonequilibrium states using the power spectrum. Free vortices are observed with ring-shaped density ripples in a perturbed sample after a long relaxation time.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗