In this project, we will investigate the controlled generation and manipulation of transverse spin persistent currents in toroidal rubidium-87 spinor BECs using novel magic-wavelength phase-imprinting techniques developed at UQ. The research will benchmark across two key applications of toroidal geometries.

Toroidal Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) provide a platform for precision rotation sensing, atomtronic circuits, and weak-link mediated Josephson junctions. These applications rely on initialising quantised superfluid circulation through an experimental technique known as phase-imprinting.

The resulting superfluid flow is dissipation-free and stable due to the single-valued condensate wavefunction and are referred to as persistent currents. Spinor BECs extend this paradigm through internal spin degrees of freedom that enable novel superfluid order and additional quantised flows.

For example, the easy-plane ferromagnetic phase of spin-1 condensates, offers a transversely magnetised system that supports spin-dependent superfluid flow distinct from conventional mass circulation. This topologically stable phase enables counterpropagating persistent currents between magnetic sublevels that will enhance investigations into sensing, atomtronic circuits, and Josephson tunnelling.

Firstly, for rotation sensing, we will characterise the sensitivity, stability, and noise resilience of spinor-based interferometry compared to scalar BEC gyroscopes. We will then investigate weak-link mediated Josephson oscillation studies which will explore the coupled oscillation dynamics between magnetic sublevels. You will be supervised by CI Neely (principal) and CI Rubinsztein-Dunlop (associate).