Vortex conveyor belt for matter-wave coherent splitting and interferometry.

We numerically study a matter wave interferometer realized by splitting a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate with phase imprinting. We show that a simple step-like imprinting pattern rapidly decays into a string of vortices that can generate opposite velocities on the two halves of the condensate. We first study in detail the splitting and launching effect of these vortex structures, whose functioning resembles the one of a conveyor belt, and we show that the initial exit velocity along the vortex conveyor belt can be controlled continuously by adjusting the vortex distance. We finally characterize the complete interferometric sequence, demonstrating how the phase of the resulting interference fringe can be used to measure an external acceleration. The proposed scheme has the potential to be developed into compact and high precision accelerometers.