arXiv:1108.4786 · Physical Review A
Cavity-induced switching between localized and extended states in a noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensate
Lu Zhou, Han Pu, Keye Zhang, Xing-Dong Zhao, Weiping Zhang
Abstract
We study an ultracold atom-cavity coupling system, which had been implemented in an experiment to display weak light nonlinearity [S. Gupta, K. L. Moore, K. W. Murch, and D. M. Stamper-Kurn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 213601 (2007)]. The model is described by a noninteracting Bose-Einstein condensate contained in a Fabry-P\'erot optical resonator, in which two incommensurate standing-wave modes are excited and thus form a quasiperiodic optical lattice potential for the atoms. Special emphasis is paid to the variation of the atomic wave function induced by the cavity light field. We show that bistability between the atomic localized and extended states can be generated under appropriate conditions.