Abstract

We discusst a possibility of a pinning of quantized matter wave vortices by optical vortices in specially arranged optical dipole traps. The vortex-antivortex optical arrays of rectangular symmetry are shown to transfer angular orbital momentum to support "antiferromagnet-like" matter waves. The separable Hamiltonian for matter waves is proposed which allows to factorize of the 3D -wavefunction exactly in a product of 1D – harmonic oscillator's ground state and 2D – vortex-antivortex wavefunction. The wavefunction’s phase gradient field associated with the field of classical velocities via Madelung transformation forms labyrinth-like structure. The macroscopic wavefunction of periodically spaced BEC superfluid vortices appears to be less influenced by decoherence.

© 2008 Optical Society of America