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arXiv:cond-mat/0607697 · Physical Review Letters

Observation of Vortex Pinning in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Shih-Kuang Tung, Volker Schweikhard, Eric Cornell

Published Dec 12, 2006• 249 citations
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Abstract

We report the observation of vortex pinning in rotating gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates. Vortices are pinned to columnar pinning sites created by a corotating optical lattice superimposed on the rotating Bose-Einstein condensates. We study the effects of two types of optical lattice: triangular and square. In both geometries we see an orientation locking between the vortex and the optical lattices. At sufficient intensity the square optical lattice induces a structural crossover in the vortex lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.97.240402

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We report the observation of vortex pinning in rotating gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates. Vortices are pinned to columnar pinning sites created by a corotating optical lattice superimposed on the rotating Bose-Einstein condensates. We study the effects of two types of optical lattice: triangular and square. In both geometries we see an orientation locking between the vortex and the optical lattices. At sufficient intensity the square optical lattice induces a structural crossover in the vortex lattice.
We study the vortex dynamics and vortex pinning effect in Bose-Einstein condensates in a rotating double-well trap potential and corotating optical lattice. We show that the vortex number does not diverge when the rotational frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ if the trap potential is of anisotropic double-well type. The critical rotational frequency as obtained from numerical simulations agrees very well with the value l/l\sqrt{l}/ll​/l for l=4l=4l=4, which supports the conjecture that surface modes with angular momentum l=4l=4l=4 are excited when the rotating condensate is trapped in a double-well potential. The vortex lattice structure in a rotating triple-well trap potential and its pinning show very interesting features. We show the existence and pinning of hidden vortices whose phase profile is similar to that of the visible vortices.
We investigate the vortex-lattice structure for single- and two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the presence of an optical lattice, which acts as a pinning potential for the vortices. The problem is considered in the mean-field quantum Hall regime, which is reached when the rotation frequency $\ensuremath{\Omega}$ of the condensate in a radially symmetric trap approaches the (radial) trapping frequency $\ensuremath{\omega}$ and the interactions between the atoms are weak. We determine the vortex-lattice phase diagram as a function of optical-lattice strength and geometry. In the limit of strong pinning the vortices are always pinned at the maxima of the optical-lattice potential, similar to the slow-rotation case. At intermediate pinning strength, however, due to the competition between interactions and pinning energy, a structure arises for the two-component case where the vortices are pinned on lines of minimal potential.
We consider the ground state of vortices in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate that is loaded in a corotating two-dimensional optical lattice. Due to the competition between vortex interactions and their potential energy, the vortices arrange themselves in various patterns, depending on the strength of the optical potential and the vortex density. We outline a method to determine the phase diagram for arbitrary vortex filling factor. Using this method, we discuss several filling factors explicitly. For increasing strength of the optical lattice, the system exhibits a transition from the unpinned hexagonal lattice to a lattice structure where all the vortices are pinned by the optical lattice. The geometry of this fully pinned vortex lattice depends on the filling factor and is either square or triangular. For some filling factors there is an intermediate half-pinned phase where only half of the vortices is pinned. We also consider the case of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate, where the possible coexistence of the above-mentioned phases further enriches the phase diagram. In addition, we calculate the dispersion of the low-lying collective modes of the vortex lattice and find that, depending on the structure of the ground state, they can be gapped or gapless. Moreover, in the half-pinned and fully pinned phases, the collective mode dispersion is anisotropic. Possible experiments to probe the collective mode spectrum, and in particular the gap, are suggested.
We study the vortex pinning effect in a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a rotating lattice potential by numerically solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We consider a triangular lattice potential created by blue-detuned laser beams. By rotating the lattice potential, we observe a structural phase transition from the Abrikosov vortex lattice to the pinned vortex lattice. We investigate the transition of the vortex lattice structure by changing conditions such as angular velocity, strength, and lattice constant of a rotating lattice potential. Our simulation results clearly show that the lattice potential has a strong vortex pinning effect when the vortex density coincides with the density of the pinning points.
Quantized vortices play a key role in superfluidity and superconductivity. We have observed the formation of highly ordered vortex lattices in a rotating Bose-condensed gas. These triangular lattices contained over 100 vortices with lifetimes of several seconds. Individual vortices persisted up to 40 seconds. The lattices could be generated over a wide range of rotation frequencies and trap geometries, shedding light on the formation process. Our observation of dislocations, irregular structure, and dynamics indicates that gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates may be a model system for the study of vortex matter.