Turbulence appears in most natural and man-made flows. However, the analysis of turbulence is particularly difficult. Links between microscopic fluid dynamics and statistical signatures of turbulence appear unobtainable from the postulates of fluid dynamics making turbulence one of the most important unsolved theoretical problems in physics. Two-dimensional quantum turbulence (2DQT), an emerging field of study, involves turbulence in two-dimensional (2D) flows in superfluids, such as Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In 2D superfluids, a turbulent state can be characterized by a disordered distribution of numerous vortex cores. The question of how to effectively and efficiently generate turbulent states in superfluids is a fundamental question in the field of quantum turbulence. Therefore, experimental studies of vortex nucleation and the onset of turbulence in a superfluid are important for achieving a deeper understanding of the overall problem of turbulence. My PhD dissertation involves the study of vortex nucleation and the onset of turbulence in quasi-2D BECs. First, I discuss experimental apparatus advancements that now enable BECs to be created in a hybrid optical-magnetic trap, an atom trapping configuration conducive to 2DQT experiments. Next, I discuss the design and construction of a quantum vortex microscope and initial vortex detection tests. Finally, I present the first experiments aimed at studying 2DQT carried out in the updated apparatus. Thermal counterflow in superfluid helium, in which the normal and superfluid components flow in opposite directions, is known to create turbulence in the superfluid. However, this phenomenon has not been simulated or studied in dilute-gas BECs as a possible vortex nucleation method. In this dissertation, I present preliminary data from the first experiments aimed at understanding thermal counterflow turbulence in dilute-gas BECs.
The presence of quantized vortices and a high level of control over trap geometries and other system parameters make dilute-gas Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) a natural environment for studies of vortex dynamics and quantum turbulence in superfluids, primary interests of the BEC group at the University of Arizona. Such research may lead to deeper understanding of the nature of quantum fluid dynamics and far-from-equilbrium phenomena.Despite the importance of quantized vortex dynamics in the fields of superfluidity, superconductivity and quantum turbulence, direct imaging of vortices in trapped BECs remains a significant technical challenge. This is primarily due to the small size of the vortex core in a trapped gas, which is typically a few hundred nanometers in diameter. In this dissertation I present the design and construction of a new ^87Rb BEC apparatus with the goal of studying vortex dynamics in trapped BECs. The heart of the apparatus is a compact vacuum chamber with a custom, all-glass science cell designed to accommodate the use of commercial high-numerical-aperture microscope objectives for in situ imaging of vortices.The designs for the new system are, in part, based on prior work in our group on in situ imaging of vortices. Here I review aspects of our prior work and discuss some of the successes and limitations that are relevant to the new apparatus. The bulk of the thesis is used to described the major subsystems of the new apparatus which include the vacuum chamber, the laser systems, the magnetic transfer system and the final magnetic trap for the atoms. Finally, I demonstrate the creation of a BEC of ~2x10^6 ^87Rb atoms in our new system and show that the BEC can be transferred into a weak, spherical, magnetic trap with a well defined magnetic field axis that may be useful for future vortex imaging studies.
Quantum gases are well isolated, highly controllable, and defect-free systems which can simulate many body quantum phenomena that have been studied in condensed matter systems.To study two-dimensional superfluid, we have developed an experimental apparatus that can produce Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) of 23 Na atoms.The apparatus can generate a pure condensate of 10 7 atoms in an optically plugged magnetic quadrupole trap within 17 s.The Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) theory provides a general framework of the superfluid phase transition in two dimension, which does not involve spontaneous symmetry breaking and emergence of an order parameter below a critical temperature.Instead, it is the formation of vortex pairs with opposite circulations below the critical temperature that mediates the superfluid phase transition.Recently, it has been demonstrated that degenerate Bose gases confined in highly oblate harmonic potentials undergo the BKT phase transition.This thesis focuses on our experimental research on thermal phase fluctuations (i.e., long-wavelength phonons and vortex pairs) in the superfluid i phase of trapped quasi-2D BECs.We have developed a quantitative probe to measure phase fluctuations in the 2D superfluid by free expansion, where the phase fluctuations in the sample were revealed as density modulations in the course of expansion.The power spectrum of the density fluctuations showed an oscillatory shape and the scaling behavior of the peak positions could be understood as a Talbot effect in matter waves.Employing this method, we demonstrated the thermal origin of phase fluctuations.We also investigated relaxation dynamics of nonequilibrium states of the quasi-2D system using the power spectrum.Thermally excited vortex pairs are the characteristic feature of the 2D superfluid.The quantized vortices are conventionally observed by a densitydepleted core after expanding a trapped sample.The method, however, cannot be applied to the 2D sample because the density modulations after free expansion lower the vortex core visibility.We enhanced the core visibility by radial compression of the sample before the expansion so the phonon modes in the 2D sample were relaxed in a 3D environment.Measuring vortex distributions, we revealed the pairing feature by spatial correlations of the vortex positions.We also studied BKT-BEC crossover phenomena in a finite-size sample trapped in a quasi-2D harmonic potential by investigating the vortex profiles at various temperatures.Condensates of atoms have an internal spin structure so they can host various kinds of topological excitations.The two-dimensional Skyrmion is one of the topological spin textures in the anti-ferromagnetic spinor condensate and ii we imprinted the structure using the magnetic field sweep technique.The 2D Skyrmion spin texture has a finite Berry curvature because of the non-coplanar spin configuration.We studied a geometric Hall effect, with condensates trapped in a harmonic potential with the Skyrmion spin texture.Under a linear driving of the spin texture, we observed a condensate dipole motion resonantly developed into a circular motion, which demonstrates the existence of an effective Lorentz force.