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arXiv:cond-mat/0002389

How to mode-lock an atom laser

P. D. Drummond, Eleftheriou, Antonios, Kerson Huang, Karen V. Kheruntsyan

Published Feb 24, 2000• 0 citations
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Abstract

We consider a possible technique for mode-locking an atom laser, based on the generation of a dark soliton in a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate, with repulsive atomic interactions. The soliton is a kink, with angular momentum per particle equal to \hbar/2. It emerges naturally, when the condensate is stirred at the soliton velocity, and subsequently outcoupled with a periodic Raman pulse-train. The result is a replicating coherent field inside the atom laser. We give a numerical demonstration of the generation and stabilization of the soliton.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0002389

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We consider a possible technique for mode-locking an atom laser, based on the generation of a dark soliton in a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate, with repulsive atomic interactions. The soliton is a kink, with angular momentum per particle equal to \hbar/2. It emerges naturally, when the condensate is stirred at the soliton velocity, and subsequently outcoupled with a periodic Raman pulse-train. The result is a replicating coherent field inside the atom laser. We give a numerical demonstration of the generation and stabilization of the soliton.
We consider a possible technique for mode locking an atom laser, based on the generation of a dark soliton in a ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate, with repulsive atomic interactions. The soliton is a kink, with angular momentum per particle equal to $\ensuremath{\Elzxh}/2.$ It emerges naturally when the condensate is stirred at the soliton velocity and cleansed with a periodic out coupler. The result is a replicating coherent field inside the atom laser, stabilized by topology. We give a numerical demonstration of the generation and stabilization of the soliton.
In order to manufacture a modelocked, pulsed atom laser, we suggest the idea of making use of the atom-atom repulsion in a BEC to form a toroidal soliton which can then form a reproducible, coherent waveform. The relevant solitons have the form of a kink, or phase-singularity in the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. We suppose that the atoms are all trapped in a deep, toroidal magnetic trap with the central repulsive core potential induced by a blue-detuned laser. We investigate the case of an atom laser environment with a uniform gain provided by the super-saturation technique. We also assume that there is a periodic loss, provided by a synchronized Raman output coupling laser, and show that this combination of gain and periodic loss leads to stable circulating dark solitons.
It is shown that simultaneously changing the scattering length of an elongated, harmonically trapped Bose-Einstein condensate from positive to negative and inverting the axial portion of the trap, so that it becomes expulsive, results in a train of self-coherent solitonic pulses. Each pulse is itself a nondispersive attractive Bose-Einstein condensate that rapidly self-cools. The axial trap functions as a waveguide. The solitons can be made robustly stable with the right choice of trap geometry, number of atoms, and interaction strength. Theoretical and numerical evidence suggests that such a pulsed atomic soliton laser can be made in present experiments.
Established techniques for deterministically creating dark solitons in repulsively interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can only access a narrow range of soliton velocities. Because velocity affects the stability of individual solitons and the properties of soliton-soliton interactions, this technical limitation has hindered experimental progress. Here we create dark solitons in highly anisotropic cigar-shaped BECs with arbitrary position and velocity by simultaneously engineering the amplitude and phase of the condensate wave function, improving upon previous techniques which explicitly manipulated only the condensate phase. The single dark soliton solution present in true one-dimensional (1D) systems corresponds to the kink soliton in anisotropic three-dimensional systems and is joined by a host of additional dark solitons, including vortex ring and solitonic vortex solutions. We readily create dark solitons with speeds from zero to half the sound speed. The observed soliton oscillation frequency suggests that we imprinted solitonic vortices, which for our cigar-shaped system are the only stable solitons expected for these velocities. Our numerical simulations of 1D BECs show this technique to be equally effective for creating kink solitons when they are stable. We demonstrate the utility of this technique by deterministically colliding dark solitons with domain walls in two-component spinor BECs.
Bright-soliton train creation and evolution in a Bose-Einstein condensate is simulated numerically using the experimental conditions of K. E. Strecker et al. [Nature 417, 150 (2002)] as a starting point. We identify the controlling factors that dictate soliton number, phase imprinting, and stability. Reliable production of multiple phase-engineered condensed-matter pulses can have practical applications to future nonlinear atom optics experiments, which we illustrate with an example of colinear scattering between repulsive solitons.
We present a widely accessible and experimentally realizable technique for the controlled creation of dark-bright solitons and soliton lattices in one-dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The method is based on preparing the condensate in a dark state of a ΛΛΛ-coupled three-level system. Numerical simulations of the corresponding two-component system reveal that individual dark-bright solitons created through this scheme can survive over experimentally accessible timescales, even when the coupling laser fields are switched off. Meanwhile, the fate of soliton lattices upon the quench of the fields depends on the scattering lengths. When they are all equal, the lattice is found to persist on timescales comparable to the condensate lifetime, even though the analysis of dynamical stability reveals that they possess unstable modes. In this case the resulting destabilization is not found to be detrimental, as it leads to recurrent dynamics. However, for unequal scattering lengths the lattice structure gets destroyed once the instability sets in, which happens after a few tens of milliseconds after the quench of the optical fields.