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Science

This Week in Science

Published Jan 7, 2000• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The atoms that constitute a Bose-Einstein condenstate all occupy the same quantum state. In other words, a single wave function can be used to describe the entire macroscopic pool of atoms. Denschlag et al. (p. 97) now demonstrate the ability to engineer and manipulate the quantum wave function of a sodium atom condensate. They use a patterned laser beam to stamp, or imprint, a region of the condensate with a specific phase pattern. In analogy to optical solitons, which propagate through a nonlinear medium without spreading out, they show that the modified region can propagate through the rest of the condensate while maintaining its imprinted phase pattern.

DOI
10.1126/science.2000.287.5450.twis

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The atoms that constitute a Bose-Einstein condenstate all occupy the same quantum state. In other words, a single wave function can be used to describe the entire macroscopic pool of atoms. Denschlag et al. (p. 97) now demonstrate the ability to engineer and manipulate the quantum wave function of a sodium atom condensate. They use a patterned laser beam to stamp, or imprint, a region of the condensate with a specific phase pattern. In analogy to optical solitons, which propagate through a nonlinear medium without spreading out, they show that the modified region can propagate through the rest of the condensate while maintaining its imprinted phase pattern.
Quantum phase engineering is demonstrated with two techniques that allow the spatial phase distribution of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to be written and read out. A quantum state was designed and produced by optically imprinting a phase pattern onto a BEC of sodium atoms, and matter-wave interferometry with spatially resolved imaging was used to analyze the resultant phase distribution. An appropriate phase imprint created solitons, the first experimental realization of this nonlinear phenomenon in a BEC. The subsequent evolution of these excitations was investigated both experimentally and theoretically.
We present experiments investigating different aspects concerning the coherent manipulation of a Bose-Einstein condensate wavefunction with far blue detuned dipole potentials. In a first set of experiments we study a waveguide for matter waves as an important atom optical element allowing to hold and guide the atoms for long observation times. We present a flexible realization of this waveguide based on a tube shaped Laguerre Gaussian laser beam and investigate the dynamics of a Bose condensed ensemble transferred into this guide. In a second set of experiments we study the dynamics of dark solitons created by the manipulation of the phase of the condensate wave function by temporally applied dipole potentials. This method of phase imprinting represents a powerful tool for the design of matter waves and the controlled creation of various excitations. The dynamics of dark solitons in matter waves is investigated in detail by experimentally and numerically studying the temporal evolution of the condensate density as well as by mapping the velocity field of the excited condensate wavefunction. In these measurements we directly detect the flux of the wave function associated with the dark soliton using spatially resolved Bragg scattering. Experiments investigating the creation and interaction of several dark solitons conclude this chapter.
Bose–Einstein condensates of particles behave in many ways like coherent radiation fields, and the realization of Bose–Einstein condensation in dilute gases has opened up the experimental study of interactions between coherent matter waves. In addition, the existence of these dilute trapped quantum gases has prompted a re-examination of a number of theoretical issues. In Sec. 13.1 we discuss Josephson tunnelling of a condensate between two wells and the role of fluctuations in particle number and phase. The number and phase variables play a key role in the description of the classic interference experiment, in which two clouds of atoms are allowed to expand and overlap (Sec. 13.2). Rather surprisingly, an interference pattern is produced even though initially the two clouds are completely isolated. Density fluctuations in a Bose gas are studied in Sec. 13.3, where we relate atomic clock shifts to the two-particle correlation function. The ability to manipulate gaseous Bose–Einstein condensates by lasers has made possible the study of coherent matter wave optics and in Sec. 13.4 we describe applications of these techniques to observe solitons, Bragg scattering, and non-linear mixing of matter waves. How to characterize Bose–Einstein condensation in terms of the density matrix is the subject of Sec. 13.5, where we also consider fragmented condensates.
A Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas is a collective state of atoms that acts like a quantum mechanical wave with a phase. In his Perspective, [Javanainen][1] highlights the demonstration by [ Saba et al .][2] that the phase difference between two condensates can be measured without destroying the condensates. The experiments open up new ways to manipulate condensates, which are macroscopic objects, as if they were quantum mechanical entities. Measurement devices based on matter-wave interferometry are a potential application. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/307/5717/1883 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/307/5717/1945
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.