Dynamic manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates with a spatial light modulator

We manipulate a Bose–Einstein condensate using the optical trap created by the diffraction of a laser beam on a fast ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator. The modulator acts as a phase grating which can generate arbitrary diffraction patterns and be rapidly reconfigured at rates up to $1\mathrm{kHz}$ to create smooth, time-varying optical potentials. The flexibility of the device is demonstrated with our experimental results for splitting a Bose–Einstein condensate and independently transporting the separate parts of the atomic cloud.