arXiv:0804.3723 · Physical Review Letters
Coherent Backscattering of Bose-Einstein Condensates in Two-Dimensional Disorder Potentials
Michael Hartung, Thomas Wellens, Cord Axel Müller, Klaus Richter, Peter Schlagheck
Abstract
We study quantum transport of an interacting Bose-Einstein condensate in a two-dimensional disorder potential. In the limit of a vanishing atom-atom interaction, a sharp cone in the angle-resolved density of the scattered matter wave is observed, arising from constructive interference between amplitudes propagating along reversed scattering paths. Weak interaction transforms this coherent backscattering peak into a pronounced dip, indicating destructive instead of constructive interference. We reproduce this result, obtained from the numerical integration of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, by a diagrammatic theory of weak localization in the presence of nonlinearity.