The exchange of orbital angular momentum (OAM) between paraxial optical vortex and a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of atomic gases is well known. In this paper, we develop a theory for the microscopic interaction between matter and an optical vortex beyond paraxial approximation. We show how superposition of vortex states of BEC can be created with a focused optical vortex. Since the polarization or spin angular momentum (SAM) of the optical field is coupled with OAM of the field, in this case, these angular momenta can be transferred to the internal electronic and external center-of-mass motion of atoms provided both the motions are coupled. We propose a scheme for producing the superposition of matter-wave vortices using Gaussian and a focused Laguerre-Gaussian beam. We study how two-photon Rabi frequencies of stimulated Raman transitions vary with focusing angles for different combinations of OAM and SAM of optical states. We demonstrate the formation of vortex-antivortex structure and discuss interference of three vortex states in a BEC.
We demonstrate the coherent, quantized transfer of the orbital angular momentum of light to a Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms by means of a stimulated, two-photon transition between the static, non-rotating BEC and a rotating state moving with the linear momentum of two photons. By reversing the transfer of linear momentum, without any angular momentum, we create either vortex states (in a simply connected trap) or persistent atom currents (in a toroidal trap). The persistent current in the toroidal trap lasts about 20 times longer than a vortex under similar conditions in the simply connected trap.
Photons carry one unit of angular momentum associated with their spin~\cite{Beth1936}. Structured vortex beams carry additional orbital angular momentum which can also be transferred to matter~\cite{Allen1992}. This extra twist has been used for example to drive motion of microscopic particles in optical tweezers as well as to create vortices in degenerate quantum gases~\cite{He1995,Andersen2006}. Here we demonstrate the transfer of optical orbital angular momentum from the transverse spatial structure of the beam to the internal (electronic) degrees of freedom of an atom. Probing a quadrupole transition of a single trapped
40Ca
+ ion localized at the center of the vortex, we observe strongly modified selection rules, accounting for both the photon spin and the vorticity of the field. In particular, we show that an atom can absorb two quanta of angular momentum from a single photon even when rotational symmetry is conserved. In contrast to previous findings~\cite{Araoka2005,Loeffler2011a,Mathevet2013}, our experiment allows for conditions where the vorticity of the laser beam determines the optical excitation, contributing to the long-standing discussion on whether the orbital angular momentum of photons can be transferred to atomic internal degrees of freedom~\cite{VanEnk1994,Babiker2002,Jauregui2004, Schmiegelow2012, Mondal2014, Scholz-Marggraf2014} and paves the way for its use to tailor light-matter interactions.