Toroidal optical dipole traps for two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates

Summary form only given. The production of tight toroidal traps, or rings, for Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) opens up the way to a variety of both fundamental and applied studies. By providing tight transverse confinement one can produce a quasi-one-dimensional motion for the BEC on a ring, which allows for studies of vortices and persistent currents. On the applied side, such mesoscopic rings could be used for rotation sensing via the Sagnac effect for counter-propagating atoms around the ring. In this paper, we show that Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser modes of high azimuthal mode index l and containing one radial ring can be used to create tight confined optical dipole traps for 2D BECs.