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Physical Review A

Bloch oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a cavity-induced optical lattice

Ch. Georges, J. Vargas, Hans Keßler, Jens Klinder, Andreas Hemmerich

Published Dec 19, 2017• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This article complements previous work on the nondestructive observation of Bloch oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice formed inside a high-finesse optical cavity [H. Ke\ss{}ler et al., New J. Phys. 18, 102001 (2016)]. We present measurements showing that the observed Bloch frequency is independent of the atom number and hence the cooperative coupling strength, the intracavity lattice depth, and the detuning between the external pump light and the effective cavity resonance. We find that in agreement with theoretical predictions, despite the atom-cavity dynamics, the value of the Bloch frequency agrees with that expected in conventional optical lattices, where it solely depends on the sizes of the force and the lattice constant. We also show that Bloch oscillations are observed in a self-organized two-dimensional lattice, which is formed if, instead of axially pumping the cavity through one of its mirrors, the Bose-Einstein condensate is irradiated by an optical standing wave oriented perpendicularly with respect to the cavity axis. For this case, however, excessive decoherence prevents a meaningful quantitative assessment.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.063615

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This article complements previous work on the nondestructive observation of Bloch oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice formed inside a high-finesse optical cavity [H. Ke\ss{}ler et al., New J. Phys. 18, 102001 (2016)]. We present measurements showing that the observed Bloch frequency is independent of the atom number and hence the cooperative coupling strength, the intracavity lattice depth, and the detuning between the external pump light and the effective cavity resonance. We find that in agreement with theoretical predictions, despite the atom-cavity dynamics, the value of the Bloch frequency agrees with that expected in conventional optical lattices, where it solely depends on the sizes of the force and the lattice constant. We also show that Bloch oscillations are observed in a self-organized two-dimensional lattice, which is formed if, instead of axially pumping the cavity through one of its mirrors, the Bose-Einstein condensate is irradiated by an optical standing wave oriented perpendicularly with respect to the cavity axis. For this case, however, excessive decoherence prevents a meaningful quantitative assessment.
It is shown experimentally that a Bose–Einstein condensate inside an optical cavity, operating in the regime of strong cooperative coupling, responds to an external force by an optomechanical Bloch oscillation, which can be directly observed in the light leaking out of the cavity. Previous theoretical work predicts that the frequency of this oscillation matches with that of conventional Bloch oscillations such that its in situ monitoring may help to increase the data acquisition speed in precision force measurements.
In this paper we give a new description, in terms of optomechanics, of previous work on the problem of an atomic Bose–Einstein condensate interacting with the optical lattice inside a laser-pumped optical cavity and subject to a bias force, such as gravity. An atomic wave packet in a tilted lattice undergoes Bloch oscillations; in a high-finesse optical cavity the backaction of the atoms on the light leads to a time-dependent modulation of the intracavity lattice depth at the Bloch frequency which can in turn transport the atoms up or down the lattice. In the optomechanical picture, the transport dynamics can be interpreted as a manifestation of dynamical backaction-induced sideband damping/amplification of the Bloch oscillator. Depending on the sign of the pump-cavity detuning, atoms are transported either with or against the bias force accompanied by an up- or down-conversion of the frequency of the pump laser light. We also evaluate the prospects for using the optomechanical Bloch oscillator to make continuous measurements of forces by reading out the Bloch frequency. In this context, we establish the significant result that the optical spring effect is absent and the Bloch frequency is not modified by the backaction.
Ultracold atoms in an optical lattice Bloch oscillate when subject to a constant force. In the first work presented in this thesis we have theoretically studied the scenario where the optical lattice potential is provided by the electric field inside an optical cavity. The coherent atom-light interaction in a cavity gives rise to a backaction effect on the light field which can modify the intracavity field amplitude and phase. In our first treatment of this problem we model the cavity light field and atoms by classical fields and solve the coupled atom-light equations of motion. As a result, we find that the amplitude and phase of the transmitted light field is modulated at the Bloch frequency. Remarkably, the Bloch frequency itself is not modified by the backaction. Thus the transmitted light field can be used to observe the oscillations continuously, allowing high-precision measurement with small clouds of atoms. In the second problem presented in this thesis, we explore the band structure of the steady state solutions of the atom-cavity system. A crucial first step towards determining the band structure is the identification of an energy functional that describes the coupled atom-light system. Although, we do not include direct atom-atom interactions in our models, the coupling of the atoms to the single mode light field of the cavity introduces an effective mutual interaction which is correctly taken into account by the energy functional we introduce. Corresponding to each point in the band there exists a steady state light field associated with an average cavity photon number. The dispersive nonlinear atom-light interaction can lead to bistable solutions for this intracavity photon number. For parameters where the atom-cavity system exhibits bistability, the atomic band structure develops loop structures akin to the ones predicted for Bose-Einstein condensates in ordinary (non-cavity) optical lattices. However, in our case the nonlinearity derives from the cavity backaction rather than from direct interatomic interactions. We find both bi- and tri-stable regimes associated with the lowest band, and show that the multistability we observe can be analysed in terms of swallowtail catastrophes. Dynamic and energetic stability of the meanfield solutions is also studied, and we show that the bistable solutions have, as expected, one unstable and two stable branches. The presence of loops in the band structure can lead to a breakdown in adiabaticity during Bloch oscillations as the entire band is sampled during the dynamics. We therefore use the insight gleaned from this work in choosing parameters for the Bloch oscillation measurement proposal presented in the rest of the thesis. In the third work presented in the thesis, we go beyond the mean field description and consider effects of the quantised nature of the light and atomic fields. The cavity light field is always in contact with external electromagnetic fields through the partially transmissive mirrors. This coupling to the external modes enters as quantum noise in the dynamics of the intracavity field and can also be viewed as a manifestation of quantum measurement backaction corresponding to the continuous observation of the transmitted light field. We solve the Heisenberg-Langevin equations for linearized fluctuations about the atomic and optical meanfields and examine how this influences the signal-to-noise ratio of a measurement of external forces using this system. In particular, we investigate the effects of changing the number of atoms, the intracavity lattice depth, and the atom-light coupling strength, and show how resonances between the Bloch oscillation dynamics and the quasiparticle spectrum have a strong influence on the signal-to-noise ratio as well as heating effects. One of the hurdles we overcome along the way is the proper treatment of fluctuations about time-dependent meanfields in the context of cold atom cavity-QED.
We have loaded Bose-Einstein condensates into one-dimensional, off-resonant optical lattices and accelerated them by chirping the frequency difference between the two lattice beams. For small values of the lattice well depth, Bloch oscillations were observed. Reducing the potential depth further, Landau-Zener tunneling out of the lowest lattice band, leading to a breakdown of the oscillations, was also studied and used as a probe for the effective potential resulting from mean-field interactions as predicted by Choi and Niu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2022 (1999)]. The effective potential was measured for various condensate densities and trap geometries, yielding good qualitative agreement with theoretical calculations.
Atomic interaction leads to dephasing and damping of Bloch oscillations (BOs) in optical lattices, which limits observation and applications of BOs. How to obtain persistent BOs is particularly important. Here, the nonlinear Bloch dynamics of the Bose–Einstein condensate with two-body and three-body interactions in deep optical lattices is studied. The damping rate induced by interactions is obtained. The damping induced by two-body interaction plays a dominant role, while the damping induced by three-body interaction is weak. However, when the two-body and three-body interactions satisfy a threshold, long-lived coherent BOs are observed. Furthermore, the Bloch dynamics with periodical modulation of linear force is studied. The frequencies of linear force corresponding to resonance and pseudoresonance are obtained, and rich dynamical phenomena, i.e., stable and strong BOs, drifting and dispersion of wave packet, are predicted. The controllable Bloch dynamics is provided with the periodic modulation of the linear force.
A Bose–Einstein condensate is dispersively coupled to a single mode of an ultra-high finesse optical cavity. The system is governed by strong interactions between the atomic motion and the light field even at the level of single quanta. While coherently pumping the cavity mode the condensate is subject to the cavity optical lattice potential whose depth depends nonlinearly on the atomic density distribution. We observe optical bistability already below the single photon level and strong back-action dynamics which tunes the coupled system periodically out of resonance.