  In this letter, atom optic techniques are proposed to control the excitation
of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an atomic trap. We show that by employing the
dipole potential induced by four highly detuned travelling-wave laser beams
with appropriate phases and frequencies, one can coherently excite a trapped
Bose-Einstein condensate composed of ultracold alkali atoms into a state
rotating around the trap center. The connection to vortex states is discussed.
