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Physical Review A

Bose-Einstein condensate inside a Bragg-reflecting atom cavity

R. Zhang, Rachel Sapiro, Natalya V. Morrow, Rahul R. Mhaskar, Georg A. Raithel

Published Jun 17, 2008• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We experimentally realize an atom cavity consisting of a magnetic trap and an optical lattice that extends over the whole trap. When displaced sufficiently from the center of the magnetic trap, dynamics of the atoms are characterized by magnetic confinement on one side of the cavity and Bragg reflection due to the optical lattice on the other side. We demonstrate this atom cavity by recording the momentum-space oscillation of a Bose-Einstein condensate inside the cavity as a function of time. This atom-cavity configuration presents the possibility of realizing a Mach-Zehnder-type atom interferometer.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.063615

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We experimentally realize an atom cavity consisting of a magnetic trap and an optical lattice that extends over the whole trap. When displaced sufficiently from the center of the magnetic trap, dynamics of the atoms are characterized by magnetic confinement on one side of the cavity and Bragg reflection due to the optical lattice on the other side. We demonstrate this atom cavity by recording the momentum-space oscillation of a Bose-Einstein condensate inside the cavity as a function of time. This atom-cavity configuration presents the possibility of realizing a Mach-Zehnder-type atom interferometer.
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We study the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice and harmonic trap. The condensates are set in motion by displacing the trap and initially follow simple semiclassical paths, shaped by the lowest energy band. Above a critical displacement, the condensate undergoes Bragg reflection. For high atom densities, the first Bragg reflection generates a train of solitons and vortices, which destabilize the condensate and trigger explosive expansion. At lower densities, soliton and vortex formation requires multiple Bragg reflections, and damps the center-of-mass motion.
We construct a Mach-Zehnder interferometer using Bose-Einstein condensed rubidium atoms and optical Bragg diffraction. In contrast to interferometers based on normal diffraction, where only a small percentage of the atoms contribute to the signal, our Bragg diffraction interferometer uses all the condensate atoms. The condensate coherence properties and high phase-space density result in an interference pattern of nearly 100% contrast. The two arms of the interferometer may be completely separated in space, making it an ideal tool that can be used to detect vortices or other topological condensate phases.
This thesis describes the behaviour of cold atoms in optical lattices. In particular, it explores how transport through the energy bands of the optical lattice can be used to study quantum chaos and Bose-Einstein condensation.\n\nFirstly, this study examines the dynamics of ultra-cold sodium atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice and a three-dimensional harmonic trap, using both semi-classical and quantum-mechanical analyses. The atoms show mixed stable-chaotic classical dynamics, which originate from the intrinsically quantum-mechanical nature of the energy band. \nThe quantised energy levels exhibit Gutzwiller fluctuations, and the wavefunctions are scarred by an unstable periodic orbit. Distinct types of wavefunction are identified and related directly to particular parts of the classical phase space via a Wigner function analysis.\n\nSecondly, this report studies the dynamics of a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice and three-dimensional harmonic trap. The condensates are set in motion by displacing the trap and initially follow simple semi-classical paths, shaped by the lowest energy band. Above a critical displacement, the condensate undergoes Bragg reflection, and performs Bloch oscillations. After multiple Bragg reflections, solitons and vortices form which damp the centre-of-mass motion.\n\nFinally, the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices are investigated for different parameter regimes, as realised in recent experiments. The results reveal how the experiments can be understood, and identify regimes in which vortices trigger explosive expansion of the condensate.