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arXiv:0709.3900 · Physical Review A

Nonlinear tunneling in two-dimensional lattices

Valeriy A. Brazhnyi, V. V. Konotop, Vladimír Kuzmiak, V. S. Shchesnovich

Published Aug 20, 2007• 9 citations
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Abstract

We present a thorough analysis of the nonlinear tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensates in static and accelerating two-dimensional lattices within the framework of the mean-field approximation. We deal with nonseparable lattices, considering different initial atomic distributions in highly symmetric states. For an analytical description of the condensate before instabilities develop, we derive several few-mode models, analyzing essentially both nonlinear and quasilinear regimes of tunneling. By direct numerical simulations, we show that two-mode models provide an accurate description of tunneling when either initially two states are populated or tunneling occurs between two stable states. Otherwise, a two-mode model may give only useful qualitative hints for understanding tunneling, but does not reproduce many features of the phenomenon. This reflects the crucial role of instabilities developed due to two-body interactions resulting in a non-negligible population of the higher bands. This effect becomes even more pronounced in the case of accelerating lattices. In the latter case we show that the direction of the acceleration is a relevant physical parameter which affects the tunneling by changing the atomic rates at different symmetric states and by changing the numbers of bands involved in the atomic transfer.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.023608

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We present a thorough analysis of the nonlinear tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensates in static and accelerating two-dimensional lattices within the framework of the mean-field approximation. We deal with nonseparable lattices, considering different initial atomic distributions in highly symmetric states. For an analytical description of the condensate before instabilities develop, we derive several few-mode models, analyzing essentially both nonlinear and quasilinear regimes of tunneling. By direct numerical simulations, we show that two-mode models provide an accurate description of tunneling when either initially two states are populated or tunneling occurs between two stable states. Otherwise, a two-mode model may give only useful qualitative hints for understanding tunneling, but does not reproduce many features of the phenomenon. This reflects the crucial role of instabilities developed due to two-body interactions resulting in a non-negligible population of the higher bands. This effect becomes even more pronounced in the case of accelerating lattices. In the latter case we show that the direction of the acceleration is a relevant physical parameter which affects the tunneling by changing the atomic rates at different symmetric states and by changing the numbers of bands involved in the atomic transfer.
The intraband tunneling of a Bose-Einstein condensate between three degenerate high-symmetry XXX points of the Brillouin zone of a cubic optical lattice is studied in the quantum regime by reduction to a three-mode model. The mean-field approximation of the deduced model is described. Compared to the previously reported two-dimensional (2D) case [V. S. Shchesnovich and V. V. Konotop, Phys. Rev. A 75, 063628 (2007)], which is reducible to the two-mode model, in the case under consideration there exist a number of new stable stationary atomic distributions between the XXX points and a new critical lattice parameter. The quantum collapses and revivals of the atomic population dynamics are absent for the experimentally realizable time span. The 2D stationary configurations, embedded into the 3D lattice, turn out to be always unstable, while the existence of a stable 1D distribution, where all atoms populate only one XXX state, may serve as a starting point in an experimental study of nonlinear tunneling in a 3D lattice.
We present our experimental investigations on the subject of dynamical nonlinearity-induced instabilities and of nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling between two energy bands in a Rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in an accelerated periodic potential. These two effects may be considered two different regimes (for small and large acceleration) of the same physical system and studied with the same experimental protocol. Nonlinearity introduces an asymmetry in Landau-Zener tunneling; as a result, tunneling from the ground state to the excited state is enhanced whereas in the opposite direction it is suppressed. When the acceleration is lowered, the condensate exhibits an unstable behaviour due to nonlinearity. We also carried out a full numerical simulation of both regimes integrating the full Gross-Pitaevskii equation; for the Landau-Zener effect we also used a simple two-level model. In both cases we found good agreement with the experimental results.
We derive a two-band finite-dimensional model for description of the condensate tunneling in an accelerating optical lattice, taking into account the fine Bloch band structure. The model reveals a very strong dependence of the final band populations on the initial populations and phases. Most importantly, additionally to the known asymmetric dependence on the nonlinearity, there is also a notable asymmetry in the sensitivity of the tunneling probability to the nonliearity-induced initial population of the Bloch band to which the tunneling takes place. This fact can explain the experimentally observed unexpected independence of the upper-to-lower tunneling probablity on the nonlinearity. Finally, we compare the predictions of the two-band model with that of the well-known nonlinear Landau-Zener model and find disagreement when the two bands are initially populated. The disagreement can be qualitative and reveals itself even for a negligible nonlinearity. However, the two models agree remarkably well if just one band is populated initially.
The dynamics of localized excitations in an array of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) is investigated in the framework of the nonlinear lattice theory. The existence of temporarily stable ground states displaying an atomic population distribution localized on very few lattice sites (intrinsic localized modes), as well as atomic population distributions involving many lattice sites (envelope solitons), is studied both numerically and analytically. The origin and properties of these modes are shown to be inherently connected with the interplay between macroscopic quantum tunneling and nonlinearity-induced self-trapping of atoms in coupled BECs. The phenomenon of Bloch oscillations of these excitations is studied both for zero and nonzero backgrounds. We find that in a definite range of parameters, homogeneous distributions can become modulationally unstable. We also show that bright solitons and excitations of shock-wave type can exist in BEC arrays even in the case of positive scattering length. Finally, we argue that a BEC array with negative scattering length in the presence of linear potentials can display collapse.
In BECs, collisions between condensate atoms give rise to a nonlinear contribution to the dynamics which is typically included as a mean-field term in the Schrodinger equation. This nonlinearity leads to a modification of well-known effects associated with matter waves in periodic potentials and adds a number of phenomena that are absent in the linear problem. We focused on the dynamics of a BEC in an accelerated optical lattice. In the linear case, this gives rise to Bloch oscillations and, above a critical acceleration, to Landau-Zener tunneling. In the nonlinear case, the probability for Landau-Zener tunneling is modified depending on the direction in which it occurs between two bands. By varying the acceleration of the optical lattice and measuring the time-dependence of the interference contrast, we were able to identify the instability regime and the characteristic time in which the dynamical instability destroys the interference pattern. Furthermore, we observed an increase in the condensate dimensions perpendicular to the lattice direction when the unstable region was reached. This indicates a mechanism whereby the longitudinal instability leads to an increase in the transverse release energy
A Bose-Einstein condensate in a modulated, one-dimensional, anharmonic potential can exhibit dynamical tunneling between islands of regular motion in phase space. With increasingly repulsive atomic interactions, dynamical tunneling is predicted to cease due to self-trapping [S. Wüster ]. This suppression of tunneling oscillations is related to the same phenomenon that occurs in the two-mode dynamics of a repulsively interacting Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential. Here we present a two-mode model for dynamical tunneling based on nonlinear Floquet states and examine the range of validity of the approximation. We characterize nonlinear dynamical tunneling for different trap strengths, modulation amplitudes, and effective Planck constants. Using the linear Floquet states we derive an expression for the critical nonlinearity beyond which tunneling ceases. Finally we demonstrate the dynamical instability of selected nonlinear Floquet states and show how to initialize some Floquet states in experiments. Our detailed survey will enable experiments to target accessible parameter regimes for the study of nonlinear dynamical tunneling.