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Journal of Optics B Quantum and Semiclassical Optics

Hitting Bose Einstein condensates with a comb: evolution of interference patterns inside a magnetic trap

J H M ller, O. Morsch, Matteo Cristiani, D. Ciampini, E. Arimondo

Published Apr 1, 2003• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the evolution inside a harmonic trap of Bose–Einstein condensates released from the periodic potential of an optical lattice. After a time-of-flight, harmonic motion of the interference peaks is observed as well as a breathing motion in the direction perpendicular to the optical lattice. We interpret these results in terms of a simple physical model and discuss the possibility of more detailed studies of such a system.

DOI
10.1088/1464-4266/5/2/356

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We study the evolution inside a harmonic trap of Bose–Einstein condensates released from the periodic potential of an optical lattice. After a time-of-flight, harmonic motion of the interference peaks is observed as well as a breathing motion in the direction perpendicular to the optical lattice. We interpret these results in terms of a simple physical model and discuss the possibility of more detailed studies of such a system.
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We investigate the interference pattern evolution process for a coherent array of Bose–Einstein condensates in a magnetic trap after the optical lattices are switched off. It is shown that there is a decay and revival of the density oscillation for the condensates confined in the magnetic trap. We find that, due to the confinement of the magnetic trap, the interference effect is much stronger than that found in the experiment performed by Pedri et al (Pedri P et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 220401), where the magnetic trap is also switched off. The interaction correction to the interference effect is also discussed for the density distribution of the central peak.
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By accelerating a Bose-Einstein condensate in a controlled way across the edge of the Brillouin zone of a 1D optical lattice, we investigate the stability of the condensate in the vicinity of the zone edge. Through an analysis of the visibility of the interference pattern after a time-of-flight and the widths of the interference peaks, we characterize the onset of instability as the acceleration of the lattice is decreased. We briefly discuss the significance of our results with respect to recent theoretical work.