Vortex sorter for Bose-Einstein condensates -: art. no. 011603

We have designed interferometers that sort Bose-Einstein condensates into their vortex components. The Bose-Einstein condensates in the two arms of the interferometer are rotated with respect to each other through fixed angles; different vortex components then exit the interferometer in different directions. The method we use to rotate the Bose-Einstein condensates involves asymmetric phase imprinting and is itself new. We have modeled rotation through fixed angles and sorting into vortex components with even and odd values of the topological charge of two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates in a number of states (pure or superposition vortex states for different values of the scattering length). Our scheme may have applications for quantum information processing.