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Physical Review A

Static and dynamic properties of self-bound droplets of light in hot vapors

Heitor da Silva, Robin Kaiser, Tommaso Macrì

Published Mar 24, 2023• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors explore analogies between self-bound droplet states in Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and the propagation of light in nonlinear hot vapor mediums. They establish a mapping between the experimental parameters used in BEC experiments and those needed to observe the analogous phenomenon in hot atomic vapors.
DOI
10.1103/physreva.107.033519

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The propagation of light in nonlinear media is well described by a 2D nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) within the paraxial approximation, which is equivalent to the GrossPitaevskii equation (GPE), the mean-field description for the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). As a product of this similarity, we can establish the figure of a quantum fluid of light. Quantum fluids of light have been used for theoretical and experimental investigations of phenomena already studied and realised in BECs. In this thesis, we describe the mechanisms that make the conception of a quantum fluid of light possible for different experimental platforms. Furthermore, we present a study on the formation of self-bound droplets of light in hot atomic vapours, our chosen nonlinear medium, in an attempt to obtain a mapping between experimental parameters typically used in BEC experiments and those needed to observe the analogous phenomenon in atomic vapours. We investigate the static properties of the system, providing a phase diagram for the different and possible solutions for the optical regimes of interest. Finally, we systematically study droplet dynamics, focusing on the behaviour of the collective monopole excitation and the dynamic formation of these objects under realistic experimental conditions.
Attractive Bose-Einstein condensates can host two types of macroscopic self-bound states: bright solitons and quantum droplets. Here, we investigate the connection between them with a Bose-Bose mixture confined in an optical waveguide. We show theoretically that, depending on atom number and interaction strength, solitons and droplets can be smoothly connected or remain distinct states coexisting only in a bistable region. We measure their spin composition, extract their density for a broad range of parameters, and map out the boundary of the region separating solitons from droplets.
As was shown by Einstein in 1924, Bose-Einstein statistics gives rise to a phase transition in which a macroscopic part of a gaseous state condenses into a phase with ground state properties, offering a unique view on the behavior of matter at zero temperature. From the very start the nature of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) has provoked statements concerning its relation with respect to superconductivity in electron gases (Einstein 1925) and the superfluidity of liquid helium (London 1938), but this connection is not easily grasped experimentally. Remarkably, although the concept of BEC appears routinely in very different contexts, ranging from excitons in semiconductors to nuclear matter, it had never been observed in its pure form, i.e., in a gaseous phase, until in 1995 BEC in ultracold Rb vapor was reported by Cornell and Wieman. Bose-Einstein condensation is probably the most exciting phenomenon currently under experimental investigation in ultracold atomic gases. In the tutorial the physics will be addressed which is at the roots of the current interest of BEC in atomic gases.
We present experimental evidence of photon droplets in an attractive (focusing) nonlocal nonlinear medium. Photon droplets are self-bound, finite-sized states of light that are robust to size and shape perturbations due to a balance of competing attractive and repulsive forces. It has recently been shown theoretically, via a multipole expansion of the nonlocal nonlinearity, that the self-bound state arises due to competition between the s-wave and d-wave nonlinear terms, together with diffraction. The theoretical photon droplet framework encompasses both a solitonlike stationary ground state and the nonsolitonlike dynamics that ensue when the system is displaced from equilibrium, i.e., driven into an excited state. We present numerics and experiments supporting the existence of these photon droplet states and measurements of the dynamical evolution of the photon droplet orbital angular momentum.
We numerically study the many-body physics of molecular Bose-Einstein condensates with strong dipole-dipole interactions. We observe the formation of self-bound droplets, and explore phase diagrams that feature a variety of exotic supersolid states. In all of these cases, the large and tunable molecular dipole moments enable the study of unexplored regimes and phenomena, including liquidlike density saturation and universal stability scaling laws for droplets, as well as pattern formation and the limits of droplet supersolidity. We discuss a realistic experimental approach to realize both the required collisional stability of the molecular gases and the independent tunability of their contact and dipolar interaction strengths. Our work provides both a blueprint and a benchmark for near-future experiments with bulk molecular Bose-Einstein condensates.