2006/07/31 by S. Tung, V. Schweikhard, E. A. Cornell · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.240402
4 pages, 6 figures. Replaced by final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2006/12/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We report the observation of vortex pinning in rotating gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). The vortices are pinned to columnar pinning sites created by a co-rotating optical lattice superimposed on the rotating BEC. We study the effects of two different types of optical lattice, triangular and square. With both geometries we see an orientation locking between the vortex and the optical lattices. At sufficient intensity the square optical lattice induces a structural cross-over in the vortex lattice.