Soliton spiraling in optically induced rotating Bessel lattices

We address soliton spiraling in optical lattices induced by multiple coherent Bessel beams and show that the dynamic nature of such lattices makes it possible for them to drag different soliton structures, setting them into rotation. We can control the rotation rate by varying the topological charges of lattice-inducing Bessel beams.     

Theory of superfluidity and drag force in the one-dimensional Bose gas

The one-dimensional Bose gas is an unusual superfluid. In contrast to higher spatial dimensions, the existence of non-classical rotational inertia is not directly linked to the dissipationless motion of infinitesimal impurities. Recently, experimental tests with ultracold atoms have begun and quantitative predictions for the drag force experienced by moving obstacles have become available. This topical review discusses the drag force obtained from linear response theory in relation to Landau’s criterion of superfluidity. Based upon improved analytical and numerical understanding of the dynamical structure factor, results for different obstacle potentials are obtained, including single impurities, optical lattices and random potentials generated from speckle patterns. The dynamical breakdown of superfluidity in random potentials is discussed in relation to Anderson localization and the predicted superfluid–insulator transition in these systems.     

Bose-Einstein Condensates in Optical Lattices with Higher-Order Interactions

The higher-order interactions of Bose-Einstein condensate in multi-dimensional optical lattices are discussed both analytically and numerically.It is demonstrated that the effects of the higher-order atomic interactions on the sound speed and the stabilities of Bloch waves strongly depend on the lattice strength.In the presence of higher-order effects,tighter and high-dimensional lattices are confirmed to be two positive factors for maintaining the system's energetic stability,and the dynamical instability of Bloch waves can take place simultaneously with the energetic instability.In addition,we find that the higher-order interactions exhibit a long-range behavior and the long-lived coherent Bloch oscillations in a tilted optical lattice exist.Our results provide an effective way to probe the higher-order interactions in optical lattices.     

多棱锥镜产生多光束干涉场的理论和实验研究

提出了一种使用多棱锥镜和多棱台镜产生多束相干光形成二维和三维光学格子的方法。理论分析和数值模拟了多束轴对称平面波干涉产生的二维及三维点阵结构的特性,得到了光场分布随光束数增加的关系,发现随着干涉光数目的增加,干涉场会复杂变化,当棱锥棱数足够多近似于一个圆锥时,干涉场会变为同心圆结构的贝塞尔光束的场分布。实验上使用多棱锥和多棱台镜进行了多光束干涉实验,得到了多束轴对称平面波干涉形成的光学格子,将数值模拟与实验结果进行了比较,二者完全吻合。     

Isolated structures in two-dimensional optical superlattice

Overlaying commensurate optical lattices with various configurations called superlattices can lead to exotic lattice topologies and, in turn, a discovery of novel physics. In this study, by overlapping the maxima of lattices, a new isolated structure is created, while the interference of minima can generate various “sublattice” patterns. Three different kinds of primitive lattices are used to demonstrate isolated square, triangular, and hexagonal “sublattice” structures in a two-dimensional optical superlattice, the patterns of which can be manipulated dynamically by tuning the polarization, frequency, and intensity of laser beams. In addition, we propose the method of altering the relative phase to adjust the tunneling amplitudes in “sublattices”. Our configurations provide unique opportunities to study particle entanglement in “lattices” formed by intersecting wells and to implement special quantum logic gates in exotic lattice geometries.     

Properties of Controllable Soliton Switching in Optical Lattices with Longitudinal Exponential-Asymptotic Modulation

The properties of controllable soliton switching in Kerr-type optical lattices with different modulation are investigated theoretically and simulated numerically. The results show that the optical lattices can be available for all-optical soliton switching through utilization for length-scale competition effects. And through longitudinal exponential-asymptotic modulation for the linear refractive index, the properties of soliton switching in the optical lattices can be improved. The number of output channels of soliton switching can be controlled by the parameters such as incident angle, asymptotic rate of longitudinal modulation, guiding parameter and form factor.     

Bloch oscillations in optical dissipative lattices

We show that Bloch oscillations are possible in dissipative optical waveguide lattices with a linearly varying propagation constant. These oscillations occur in spite of the fact that the Bloch wave packet experiences coupling gain and (or) loss. Experimentally, this process can be observed in different settings, such as in laser arrays and lattices of semiconductor optical amplifiers. In addition, we demonstrate that these systems can suppress instabilities arising from preferential mode noise growth.     

Electromagnetically induced moiré optical lattices in a coherent atomic gas

Electromagnetically induced optical (or photonic) lattices via atomic coherence in atomic ensembles have recently received great theoretical and experimental interest. We here conceive a way to generate electromagnetically induced moiré optical lattices — a twisted periodic pattern when two identical periodic patterns (lattices) are overlapped in a twisted angle (θ) — in a three-level coherent atomic gas working under electromagnetically induced transparency. We show that, changing the twisted angle and relative strength between the two constitutive sublattices, the moiré Bloch bands that are extremely flattened can always appear, resembling the typical flat-band and moiré physics found in other contexts. Dynamics of light propagation in the induced periodic structures demonstrating the unique linear localization and delocalization properties are also revealed. Our scheme can be implemented in a Rubidium atomic medium, where the predicted moiré optical lattices and flattened bands are naturally observable.     

Critical temperature and condensed fraction of Bose-Einstein condensation in optical lattices

Critical temperature and condensate fraction of Bose-Einstein condensation in the optical lattice are studied. The results show that the critical temperature in optical lattices can be characterized with an equivalent critical temperature in a single lattice, which provide a fast evaluation of critical temperature and condensate fraction of Bose-Einstein condensation confined with pure optical trap. Critical temperature can be estimated with an equivalent critical temperature. It is predicted that critical temperature is proportional to q in q number lattices for superfluid state and should be equal to that in a single lattic for Mott insulate state. Required potential depth or Rabi frequency and maximum atom number in the lattices both for superfluid state and Mott state are presented based on views of thermal mechanical statistics.     

Matter-wave bright solitons in effective bichromatic lattice potentials

Matter-wave bright solitons in bichromatic lattice potentials are considered and their dynamics for different lattice environments are studied. Bichromatic potentials are created from superpositions of (i) two linear optical lattices and (ii) a linear and a nonlinear optical lattice. Effective potentials are found for the solitons in both bichromatic lattices and a comparative study is done on the dynamics of solitons with respect to the effective potentials. The effects of dispersion on solitons in bichromatic lattices are studied and it is found that the dispersive spreading can be minimized by appropriate combinations of lattice and interaction parameters. Stability of nondispersive matter-wave solitons is checked from phase portrait analysis.     

Experiments with a 3D double optical lattice

We present a setup where we trap two different cesium hyperfine ground states in two different near-resonant optical lattices with identical topographies. We demonstrate that we can change the relative spatial phase between the lattices and we measure the equilibrium temperature as a function of the relative spatial phase. This provides a topographical chart of the optical potential. We also determine the rate at which atoms are transferred between the lattices and show that the setup is a promising candidate for implementing coherent quantum state manipulation.     

Fabrication of two-dimensional elliptic photonic lattices in photorefractive crystal by optical induction method

We fabricate two-dimensional elliptic photonic lattices in iron-doped lithium niobate photorefractive crystal for the first time with optical induction method. The experimental setup of our method is very simple and flexible without complicated optical adjustment system. We analyze and verify the two-dimensional elliptic photonic lattices by plane wave guiding, far field diffraction pattern imaging, and Brillouin-zone spectroscopy. Induced elliptic photonic lattices can stably exist for a long time in the iron-doped lithium niobate crystal. The induced two-dimensional elliptic photonic lattices might offer an easy method to study generic band gap phenomena in anisotropic periodic structures.     

A simple method for fabricating two- and three-dimensional photorefractive photonic lattices microstructures

We demonstrate an approach for easy fabrication of two- and three-dimensional optically induced nonlinear photonic lattices microstructures in photorefractive crystal by applying spatial filter and amplitude mask. The experimental setup of this method is very simple and flexible without complicated optical adjustment system. It can be applied in almost any optical laboratories. Two-dimensional hexagonal, square and three-dimensional hexagonal nonlinear photonic lattices microstructures have been produced in an iron-doped lithium niobate photorefractive crystal. The period of the induced photonic lattices microstructures can be dominated easily. This method is easily extended to generate more complex photonic lattices microstructures in photorefractive crystals, such as quasicrystal lattice.     

Simulating cyclotron-Bloch dynamics of a charged particle in a 2D lattice by means of cold atoms in driven quasi-1D optical lattices

Quantum dynamics of a charged particle in a two-dimensional (2D) lattice subject to magnetic and electric fields is a rather complicated interplay between cyclotron oscillations (the case of vanishing electric field) and Bloch oscillations (zero magnetic field), details of which has not yet been completely understood. In the present work we suggest to study this problem by using cold atoms in optical lattices. We introduce a one-dimensional (1D) model which can be easily realized in laboratory experiments with quasi-1D optical lattices and show that this model captures many features of the cyclotron-Bloch dynamics of the quantum particle in 2D square lattices.     

Localized vibrational modes in optically bound structures

We show, through analytical theory and rigorous numerical calculations, that optical binding can organize a collection of particles into extended, periodic one-dimensional lattices. These lattices, as well as other optically bound structures, are shown to exhibit spatially localized vibrational eigenmodes. The origin of localization here is distinct from the usual mechanisms such as disorder, defect, or nonlinearity but is a consequence of the long-ranged nature of optical binding. For an array of particles trapped by an interference pattern, the stable configuration is often dictated by the external light source, but we observed that interparticle optical binding forces can have a profound influence on the dynamics.     

Polarization vortex spatial optical solitons in Bessel optical lattices

We investigate the formation of polarization vortex spatial optical solitons in optical lattice induced by a non-diffracting Bessel beam. The properties of these solitons in zeroth-order and first-order Bessel lattices with focusing and defocusing Kerr nonlinearity are discussed. It is found that these solitons have some analogies with phase vortex solitons carrying single positive or negative topological charge in these lattices. Besides, these polarization vortex solitons have complicated dynamical characteristic and can be stabilized in some parameter region.     

Optically-induced defect states in photonic lattices: formation of?defect channels, directional couplers, and disordered lattices leading to Anderson-like light localization

Formation of defect states by optical induction in one-dimensional photonic lattices fabricated in photorefractive lithium niobate is investigated experimentally. First, by using a moving narrow laser beam for defect recording, we investigate light propagation in samples containing single line defects and adjacent channel defects forming directional couplers. Then, these results are used to create lattices with randomly distributed defects, resembling a disordered optical potential. In such lattices, wave propagation is found to change from ballistic transport to transverse Anderson-like light localization as a function of induced disorder.     

Soliton control in optical lattices with periodic modulation of nonlinearity coefficient

We address the dynamics of solitons in the optical lattices with periodic modulation of the nonlinearity coefficient. Based on the quasi-particle approach, the properties of fundamental soliton localized in optical lattices are theoretically analyzed and shown its potential application for controllable soliton switching. Moreover, the phenomena of multi-soliton splitting and the single-soliton constituent trapping in the optical lattices are illustrated and discussed.     

Inhomogeneous atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in cubic lattices

We determine the ground state properties of inhomogeneous mixtures of bosons and fermions in cubic lattices and parabolic confining potentials. For finite hopping we determine the domain boundaries between Mott-insulator plateaux and hopping-dominated regions for lattices of arbitrary dimension within mean-field and perturbation theory. The results are compared with a new numerical method that is based on a Gutzwiller variational approach for the bosons and an exact treatment for the fermions. The findings can be applied as a guideline for future experiments with trapped atomic Bose-Fermi mixtures in optical lattices.     

Extending dark optical trapping geometries

New counterpropagating geometries are presented for localizing ultracold atoms in the dark regions created by the interference of Laguerre-Gaussian laser beams. In particular dark helices, an "optical revolver," axial lattices of rings, and axial lattices of ring lattices of rings are considered and a realistic scheme for achieving phase stability is explored. The dark nature of these traps will enable their use as versatile tools for low-decoherence atom interferometry with zero differential light shifts.