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arXiv:1301.3959 · New Journal of Physics

Interactions of solitons with a Gaussian barrier: splitting and recombination in quasi-one-dimensional and three-dimensional settings

J Cuevas, P G Kevrekidis, Boris A. Malomed, P Dyke, Randall G. Hulet

Published Jun 6, 2013• 60 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The interaction of matter–wave solitons with a potential barrier is a fundamentally important problem, and the splitting and subsequent recombination of the soliton by the barrier is the essence of soliton matter–wave interferometry. We demonstrate the three-dimensional (3D) character of the interactions in the case relevant to ongoing experiments, where the number of atoms in the soliton is relatively close to the collapse threshold. We examine the soliton dynamics in the framework of the effectively one-dimensional (1D) nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (NPSE), which admits the collapse in a modified form, and in parallel we use the full 3D Gross–Pitaevskii equation (GPE). Both approaches produce similar results, which are, however, quite different from those produced in recent work that used the 1D cubic GPE. Basic features, produced by the NPSE and the 3D GPE alike, include (a) an increase in the first reflection coefficient for increasing barrier height and decreasing atom number; (b) large variation of the secondary reflection/recombination probability versus barrier height; (c) pronounced asymmetry in the oscillation amplitudes of the transmitted and reflected fragments; and (d) enhancement of the transverse excitations as the number of atoms is increased. We also explore effects produced by variations of the barrier width and outcomes of the secondary collision upon phase imprinting on the fragment in one arm of the interferometer.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/15/6/063006

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The interaction of matter–wave solitons with a potential barrier is a fundamentally important problem, and the splitting and subsequent recombination of the soliton by the barrier is the essence of soliton matter–wave interferometry. We demonstrate the three-dimensional (3D) character of the interactions in the case relevant to ongoing experiments, where the number of atoms in the soliton is relatively close to the collapse threshold. We examine the soliton dynamics in the framework of the effectively one-dimensional (1D) nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (NPSE), which admits the collapse in a modified form, and in parallel we use the full 3D Gross–Pitaevskii equation (GPE). Both approaches produce similar results, which are, however, quite different from those produced in recent work that used the 1D cubic GPE. Basic features, produced by the NPSE and the 3D GPE alike, include (a) an increase in the first reflection coefficient for increasing barrier height and decreasing atom number; (b) large variation of the secondary reflection/recombination probability versus barrier height; (c) pronounced asymmetry in the oscillation amplitudes of the transmitted and reflected fragments; and (d) enhancement of the transverse excitations as the number of atoms is increased. We also explore effects produced by variations of the barrier width and outcomes of the secondary collision upon phase imprinting on the fragment in one arm of the interferometer.
The interaction of matter-wave solitons with a potential barrier is a fundamentally important problem, and the splitting and subsequent recombination of the soliton by the barrier is the essence of soliton matter-wave interferometry. We demonstrate the three-dimensional (3D) character of the interactions in the case relevant to ongoing experiments, where the number of atoms in the soliton is sufficiently large that the soliton is close to collapse. The mean-field description is quite accurate, but the proximity to the collapse threshold makes the use of the 1D Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) irrelevant. We examine the soliton dynamics in the framework of the effectively 1D nonpolynomial Schr{\\"{o}}dinger equation (NPSE), which admits the collapse in a modified form, and in parallel we use the full 3D GPE. Both approaches produce results which are very different from those produced in recent work which used the 1D cubic GPE. The features observed in both the NPSE and the 3D GPE include (a) an increase in the first reflection coefficient for increasing barrier height and decreasing atom number; (b) strong modulation in the secondary reflection/recombination probability vs. barrier height; (c) a pronounced asymmetry in the oscillation amplitudes of the transmitted and reflected fragments; (d) an enhancement of the transverse excitations as the number of atoms is increased. We also explore effects produced by variations of the barrier width and outcomes of the secondary collision upon phase imprinting on the fragment in one arm of the interferometer.
Bright solitons in a quasi-1D Bose–Einstein condensate can be used to enhance precision in matter-wave interferometry, due to their inherent robustness and support against dispersion. Such a soliton interferometer typically relies on a potential barrier used to split a single soliton into two smaller coherent solitons which can then be recombined on the same barrier. In this thesis we examine two extensions to this scheme. Firstly, we investigate a binary BEC system consisting of two bright solitons which are coupled through a mutual nonlinear interaction term. We derive a set of conditions under which the two components can be separated on a potential barrier and use numerical simulations to probe the regimes beyond which this mathematical treatment is applicable. We then use the numerical simulations to look at the effect of the nonlinear coupling on the dynamics of the binary solitons interacting with the barrier. We also look at the interference behaviour found by doubling the simulation time in either a ring trap or a harmonic trapping potential (to ensure recombination on the barrier); as well as the case where the solitons start spatially separated on either side of the barrier in order to find conditions under which the solitons will combine on the barrier. We find a good agreement between the analytical predictions and the results of simulations. Beyond the regions of parameter space where the predictions are expected to hold, we find complex transmission and interference behaviour as a result of nonlinear effects. The second part of this thesis consists of an examination of the prospect of using a subwavelength barrier scheme in a soliton interferometry experiment. This involves using two resonant coupling beams in a Λ-system with a spatially varying intensity. Under certain conditions, this can be used to form an effective potential barrier with a width which is not diffraction-limited. We look at suitable parameter regimes for such a barrier to split and recombine solitons in an interferometer and probe the effects of possible complications such as misalignment in the beams and different scattering lengths in the different states. We simulate the soliton interferometer using the full three component GPE as well as the single component analogue with the effective potential in order to characterise the soliton behaviour and the dependence of the interferometer sensitivity on the system parameters. We find a trend towards an idealised soliton interferometer with a decreasing value of the parameter, w, controlling the barrier characteristics. Also, we demonstrate an agreement between the relevant three component GPE and the analogous single component GPE, in the limit of strong coupling fields.
We report systematic numerical simulations of the collision of a bright matter-wave soliton made of Bose-condensed alkali-metal atoms through a narrow potential barrier by using the three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. In this way, we determine how the transmission coefficient depends on the soliton impact velocity and the barrier height. Quite remarkably, we also obtain the regions of parameters where there is the collapse of the bright soliton induced by the collision. We compare these three-dimensional results with the ones obtained by three different one-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equations. We find that a specifically modified nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation is able to accurately assess the transmission coefficient even in a region in which the usual nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation collapses. In particular, this simplified but very effective one-dimensional model takes into account the transverse width dynamics of the soliton with an ordinary differential equation coupled to the partial differential equation of the axial wave function of the Bose-Einstein condensate.
We consider a matter-wave bright soliton interferometer composed of a harmonic potential trap with a Rosen-Morse barrier at its center on which an incident soliton collides and splits into two solitons. These two solitons recombine after a dipole oscillation in the trap at the position of the barrier. We focus on the characterization of the splitting process in the case in which the reflected and transmitted solitons have the same number of atoms. We obtain that the velocity of the split solitons strongly depends on the nonlinearity and on the width of the barrier and that the reflected soliton is in general slower than the transmitted one. Also, we study the phase difference acquired between the two solitons during the splitting and we fit semianalytically the main dependences with the velocity of the incident soliton, the nonlinearity, and the width of the barrier. The implementation of the full interferometer sequence is tested by means of the phase imprinting method.
Solitons are long-lived wavepackets that propagate without dispersion and exist in a wide range of one-dimensional (1D) nonlinear systems. A Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a quasi-1D waveguide can support bright-solitary-matter waves (3D analogues of solitons) when interatomic interactions are sufficiently attractive that they cancel dispersion. Solitary-matter waves are excellent candidates for a new generation of highly sensitive interferometers, as their non-dispersive nature allows them to acquire phase shifts for longer times than conventional matter-waves interferometers. However, such an interferometer is yet to be realised experimentally. In this work, we demonstrate the splitting and recombination of a bright-solitary-matter wave on a narrow repulsive barrier, which brings together the fundamental components of an interferometer. We show that both interference-mediated recombination and classical velocity filtering effects are important, but for a sufficiently narrow barrier interference-mediated recombination can dominate. We reveal the extreme sensitivity of interference-mediated recombination to the experimental parameters, highlighting the potential of soliton interferometry.
Bose–Einstein condensates with attractive interactions have stable 1D solutions in the form of bright solitary-waves. These solitary waves behave, in the absence of external potentials, like macroscopic quantum particles. This opens up a wide array of applications for the testing of quantum mechanical behaviours and precision measurement. Here we investigate these applications with particular focus on the interactions of bright solitary-waves with narrow potential barriers. We first study bright solitons in the Gross–Pitaevskii equation as they are split on Gaussian and δ-function barriers, and then on Gaussian barriers in a low energy system. We present analytic and numerical results determining the general region in which a soliton may not be split on a finite width potential barrier. Furthermore, we test the sensitivity of the system to quantum fluctuations. We then study fast-moving bright solitons colliding at a narrow Gaussian potential barrier. In the limiting case of a δ-function barrier, we show analytically that the relative norms of the outgoing waves depends sinusoidally on the relative phase of the incoming waves, and determine whether the outgoing waves are bright solitons. We use numerical simulations to show that outside the high velocity limit nonlinear effects introduce a skew to the phase-dependence. Finally, we use these results to analyse the process of soliton interferometry. We develop analyses of both toroidal and harmonic trapping geometries for Mach–Zehnder interferometry, and then two implementations of a toroidal Sagnac inter- ferometer, also giving the analytical determination of the Sagnac phase in such systems. These results are again verified numerically. In the Mach–Zehnder case, we again probe the systems sensitivity to quantum fluctuations.