Tailoring matter waves in a time-dependent optical lattice: from quantum chaos to quantum control

Jeremy B. Reeves, Bryce Gadway, Ludwig Krinner +3 more

M. Rietmann, R. Carretero-González, Ricardo Chacón

We demonstrate that directed transport of bright solitons formed in a quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate can be reliably controlled by tailoring a weak optical lattice potential, biharmonic in both space and time, in accordance with the degree of symmetry breaking mechanism. By considering the regime where matter-wave solitons are narrow compared to the lattice period, (i) we propose an analytical estimate for the dependence of the directed soliton current on the biharmonic potential parameters that is in good agreement with numerical experiments, and (ii) we show that the dependence of the directed soliton current on the number of atoms is a consequence of the ratchet universality.

Javier Madroñero, Alexey Ponomarev, Andre R. R. Carvalho +7 more

Jasur A. Abdullaev, Dario Poletti, Elena A. Ostrovskaya +1 more

We propose a method for achieving dynamically controllable transport of highly mobile matter-wave solitons in a driven two-dimensional optical lattice. Our numerical analysis based on the mean-field model and the theory based on the time-averaging approach demonstrate that a fast time-periodic rocking of the two-dimensional optical lattice enables efficient stabilization and manipulation of spatially localized matter wave packets via induced reconfigurable mobility channels.

Mark G. Raizen, Wolfgang P. Schleich

Recent work in atom optics has led to enormous progress in the study of quantum chaos and has addressed a broad range of problems in quantum transport, traditionally studied in the context of condensed matter physics. This issue brings together the various researchers working in the border domain between atom optics and solid state physics and focuses on atomic motion in light fields in a regime that is dominated by quantum effects. The topics discussed in this issue include: • quantum effects of atomic motion in light fields; • quantum chaos in time dependent lattices; • tunnelling in stationary or time-dependent lattices; • Wannier-Stark ladder and Bloch oscillations; • atomic band structures; • many-body effects on transport in optical lattices; • effects of decoherence on quantum transport; • weak and dynamical localization. At this point we take the opportunity to express our gratitude to the authors of the papers of this issue and the reviewers for their efforts in preparing and ensuring the high quality of the state of the art presentation.

R. H. Graham