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arXiv:cond-mat/0506638 · Physical Review Letters

Suppression of Transport of an Interacting Elongated Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Random Potential

David Clément, A. F. Varón, Mathilde Hugbart, J. A. Retter, Philippe Bouyer, Laurent Sanchez-Palencia, Dimitri M. Gangardt, Georgy V. Shlyapnikov, Alain Aspect

Published Oct 21, 2005• 303 citations
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Abstract

We observe the suppression of the 1D transport of an interacting elongated Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential with an amplitude that is small compared to the typical energy per atom, dominated by the interaction energy. Numerical calculations reproduce our observations well. We propose a scenario for disorder-induced trapping of the condensate in agreement with our findings.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.95.170409

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We observe the suppression of the 1D transport of an interacting elongated Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential with an amplitude that is small compared to the typical energy per atom, dominated by the interaction energy. Numerical calculations reproduce our observations well. We propose a scenario for disorder-induced trapping of the condensate in agreement with our findings.
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We present a detailed analysis of the 1D expansion of a coherent interacting matterwave (a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC)) in the presence of disorder. A 1D random potential is created via laser speckle patterns. It is carefully calibrated and the self-averaging properties of our experimental system are discussed. We observe the suppression of the transport of the BEC in the random potential. We discuss the scenario of disorder-induced trapping taking into account the radial extension in our experimental 3D BEC and we compare our experimental results with the theoretical predictions.
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We observe large density modulations in time-of-flight images of elongated Bose-Einstein condensates, initially confined in a harmonic trap and in the presence of weak disorder. The development of these modulations during the time of flight and their dependence with the disorder are investigated. We render an account of this effect using numerical and analytical calculations. We conclude that the observed large density modulations originate from the weak initial density modulations induced by the disorder and not from initial phase fluctuations (thermal or quantum).