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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Symmetry-broken momentum distributions induced by matter-wave diffraction during time-of-flight expansion of ultracold atoms

Juliette Simonet, Malte Weinberg, Ole Jürgensen, C. Ölschläger, Dirk-Soeren Luehmann, K. Sengstock

Published May 26, 2016• 0 citations
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Symmetry-broken momentum distributions induced by matter-wave diffraction during time-of-flight expansion of ultracold atoms

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We study several effects which lead to symmetry-broken momentum distributions of quantum gases released from optical lattices. In particular, we demonstrate that the interaction within the first milliseconds of the time-of-flight expansion can strongly alter the measurement of the initial atomic momentum distribution. For bosonic mixtures in state-dependent lattices, interspecies scattering processes lead to a symmetry breaking in momentum space. The underlying mechanism is identified to be diffraction of the matter wave from the total density lattice, which gives rise to a time-dependent interaction potential. Our findings are of fundamental relevance for the interpretation of time-of-flight measurements and for the study of exotic quantum phases such as the twisted superfluid. Beyond that, the observed matter-wave diffraction can also be used as an interferometric probe. In addition, we report on diffraction from the state-dependent standing light field, which leads to the same symmetry-broken momentum distributions, even for single component condensates.

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We analyze the interference pattern produced by ultracold atoms released from an optical lattice, commonly interpreted as the momentum distributions of the trapped quantum gas. We show that for finite times of flight the resulting density distribution can, however, be significantly altered, similar to a near-field diffraction regime in optics. We illustrate our findings with a simple model and realistic quantum Monte Carlo simulations for bosonic atoms and compare the latter to experiments.

arXiv:0808.2212•Physical Review Letters•Oct 9, 2008•117 citations
We study several effects which lead to symmetry-broken momentum distributions of quantum gases released from optical lattices. In particular, we demonstrate that the interaction within the first milliseconds of the time-of-flight expansion can strongly alter the measurement of the initial atomic momentum distribution. For bosonic mixtures in state-dependent lattices, interspecies scattering processes lead to a symmetry breaking in momentum space. The underlying mechanism is identified to be diffraction of the matter wave from the total density lattice, which gives rise to a time-dependent interaction potential. Our findings are of fundamental relevance for the interpretation of time-of-flight measurements and for the study of exotic quantum phases such as the twisted superfluid. Beyond that, the observed matter-wave diffraction can also be used as an interferometric probe. In addition, we report on diffraction from the state-dependent standing light field, which leads to the same symmetry-broken momentum distributions, even for single component condensates.
Abstract Matter-wave diffraction is an important and widely used method for manipulating atomic momentum states and for studying dynamical evolution in ultracold-atom physics. Here, we investigated momentum diffraction of ultracold 87 R b atoms using a short lattice pulse in the presence of a forced harmonic potential. The forced potential is achieved by combining a magnetic field gradient and a crossed-dipole trap. By tuning the gradient field strength and atomic evolution time in the trap, we found that populations of the forward and backward diffractive momentum components exhibit asymmetry relative to the original matter wave, a feature that has often been overlooked or deliberately avoided in previous studies. The factors that induce this asymmetric diffraction are identified and systematically analyzed, including the initial atomic velocity, the trap potential gradient, and the cooperative interactions among atomic spin-momentum modes. A transparent physical picture supported by analytical modeling is presented. This work can provide a better understanding of matter-wave diffraction in the presence of external fields and in complex or imperfect lattice configurations, thereby potentially advancing future research on ultracold atom interferometry and quantum simulation involving multiple spin-momentum modes.