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arXiv:cond-mat/9910487 · Physical Review Letters

Dark Solitons in Bose-Einstein Condensates

Sven Burger, Kai Bongs, S. Dettmer, Wolfgang A. Ertmer, K. Sengstock, Anna Sanpera, Georgy V. Shlyapnikov, Maciej Lewenstein

Published Dec 20, 1999• 1,480 citations
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Abstract

Dark solitons in cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb are created by a phase imprinting method. Coherent and dissipative dynamics of the solitons has been observed. © 1999 The American Physical Society.
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.83.5198

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Experimental and numerical studies of the velocity field of dark solitons in Bose–Einstein condensates are presented. The formation process after phase imprinting as well as the propagation of the emerging soliton are investigated using spatially resolved Bragg spectroscopy of soliton states in Bose–Einstein condensates of 87 Rb. A comparison of experimental data to results from numerical simulations of the Gross–Pitaevskii equation clearly identifies the flux underlying a dark soliton propagating in a Bose–Einstein condensate. The results allow further optimization of the phase imprinting method for creating collective excitations of Bose–Einstein condensates.
The generation of dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates has been an area of interest since the first experimental condensates were produced. The ubiquity of solitons in the natural world makes them an important phenomenon to understand. Despite excellent theoretical work in two dimensional dark solitons, few experiments have had the opportunity to investigate this regime. The work presented investigates the generation of dark solitons in a Rb-87 Bose-Einstein condensate. The evolution and decay of these topological excitations are investigated. The decay of the dark solitons is found to vary with the phase-step used to generate them. Dark solitons created with a phase-step width of 0.60 ±0.15 μm are found to decay into vortices after 10 ms. Dark solitons generated with larger phase-steps are found not to exhibit this vortex decay, instead dissipating over 10-15 ms back into the condensate. The first experimental generation of two dimensional Jones-Roberts solitons is reported in this work. These dark solitons differ from the standard planar dark soliton in that they are finite in extent and are \nfound to be more dynamically stable. The Jones-Roberts solitons are observed for 40 ms with no observed change in energy. \n
The dynamics of a dark soliton in an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate is studied at finite temperatures. In addition to accurately reproducing all stages of the decay of the soliton observed in the experiment of Burger [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 5198 (1999)], our numerical simulations reveal the existence of an experimentally accessible parameter regime for which phase-imprinted dark solitons can execute at least one full axial oscillation prior to their decay. The dependence of the decay time scale on temperature and initial soliton depth is analyzed and the role of interatomic collisions quantified. © 2007 The American Physical Society.