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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Bright atomic solitons for repulsive interaction? A feasibility study

Bernd Eiermann, T. Anker, K. Forberich, B. Brezger, M. J. Bellanca, Markus K. Oberthaler, J. Mlynek

Published Nov 13, 2002• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Nonlinear atom optics is already a well established field. In this paper, we present a new approach to control the matter wave optical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate by manipulating the dispersion of the matter waves (i.e. the kinetic energy). We show that this dispersion management allows us to realize bright atomic solitons even for a repulsive interaction between the atoms.

DOI
10.1109/qels.2001.962114

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Summary form only given. Nonlinear atom optics is already a well established field. In this paper, we present a new approach to control the matter wave optical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate by manipulating the dispersion of the matter waves (i.e. the kinetic energy). We show that this dispersion management allows us to realize bright atomic solitons even for a repulsive interaction between the atoms.
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We review recent experimental and theoretical work on the creation of bright matter wave solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates. In two recent experiments, solitons are formed from Bose–Einstein condensates of 7 Li by utilizing a Feshbach resonance to switch from repulsive to attractive interactions. The solitons are made to propagate in a one-dimensional potential formed by a focused laser beam. For repulsive interactions, the wavepacket undergoes dispersive wavepacket spreading, while for attractive interactions, localized solitons are formed. In our experiment, a multi-soliton train containing up to ten solitons is observed to propagate without spreading for a duration of 2 s. Adjacent solitons are found to interact repulsively, in agreement with a calculation based on the nonlinear Schrödinger equation assuming that the soliton train is formed with an alternating phase structure. The origin of this phase structure is not entirely clear.
We report on the first experimental observation of bright matter wave solitons for 87Rb atoms with repulsive atom-atom interaction. This counterintuitive situation arises inside a weak periodic potential, where anomalous dispersion can be realized at the Brillouin zone boundary. If the coherent atomic wave packet is prepared at the corresponding band edge, a bright soliton is formed inside the gap. The strength of our system is the precise control of preparation and real time manipulation, allowing the systematic investigation of gap solitons.
We present the first realization of a solitonic atom interferometer. A Bose-Einstein condensate of 1×10(4) atoms of rubidium-85 is loaded into a horizontal optical waveguide. Through the use of a Feshbach resonance, the s-wave scattering length of the 85Rb atoms is tuned to a small negative value. This attractive atomic interaction then balances the inherent matter-wave dispersion, creating a bright solitonic matter wave. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed by driving Bragg transitions with the use of an optical lattice colinear with the waveguide. Matter-wave propagation and interferometric fringe visibility are compared across a range of s-wave scattering values including repulsive, attractive and noninteracting values. The solitonic matter wave is found to significantly increase fringe visibility even compared with a noninteracting cloud.