Coherence of a squeezed sodium atom laser generated from Raman output coupling

The coherence of a squeezed sodium atom laser generated from a Raman output coupler, in which the sodium atoms in Bose-Einstein condensate （BEC） interact with two light beams consisting of a weaker squeezed coherent probe light and a stronger classical coupling light, is investigated. The results show that in the case of a large mean number of BEC atoms and a weaker probe light field, the atom laser is antibunching, and this atom laser is second-order coherent if the number of BEC atoms in traps is large enough.     

Modulational instability for a self-attractive two-component Bose--Einstein condensate

By means of the multiple-scale expansion method, the coupled nonlinear Schr?dinger equations without an explicit external potential are obtained in two-dimensional geometry for a self-attractive Bose-Einstein condensate composed of different hyperfine states. The modulational instability of two-component condensate is investigated by using a simple technique. Based on the discussion about two typical cases, the explicit expression of the growth rate for a purely growing modulational instability and the optimum stable conditions are given and analysed analytically. The results show that the modulational instability of this two-dimensional system is quite different from that in a one-dimensional system.     

Tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensate and interference effect in a harmonic trap with a Gaussian energy barrier

The tunneling effect of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a harmonic trap with a Gaussian energy barrier is studied in this paper. The initial condensate evolves into two separate moving condensates after the tunneling time under certain conditions. The interference pattern between the two moving condensates is given as a comparison and as a further demonstration of the existence of the global phase.     

Tunneling Dynamics of Two-Species Bose-Einstein Condensates with Feshbach Resonances

We investigate tunneling dynamics of atomic group consisting of three atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates with Feshbach resonance. It is shown that the tunneling of the atom group depends not only on the inter-atomic nonlinear interactions and the initial number of atoms in these condensates, but also on the tunneling coupling between the atomic condensate and the three-atomic molecular condensate. It is found that besides oscillating tunneling current between the atomic condensate and the molecular condensate, the nonlinear atomic group tunneling dynamics sustains a self-maintained population imbalance: a macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect. The influence of de-coherence caused by non-condensate atoms on the tunneling dynamics is studied. It is indicated that de-coherence suppresses the atomic group tunneling.     

Three-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate vortex soliton sunder optical lattice and harmonic confinements

We predict three-dimensional vortex solitons in a Bose-Einstein condensate under a complex potential which is the combination of a two-dimensional parabolic trap along the transverse radial direction and a one-dimensional optical-lattice potential along the z axis direction. The vortex solitons are built in the form of layer-chain structure made up of several fundamental vortices along the optical-lattice direction, which were not reported before in the three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate. By using the combination of the energy density functional method with the direct numerical simulation, we find three-dimensional vortex solitons with topological charge χ=1, χ=2, and χ=3. Moreover, the macroscopic quantum tunneling and the chirp phenomena of the vortex solitons are shown in the evolution. Thereinto, the occurrence of the macroscopic quantum tunneling provides a possibility for the realization of the quantum tunneling in experiment. Specifically, we manipulate the vortex solitons along the optical lattice direction successfully. The stability limits for dragging the vortex solitons from an initial fixed position to a prescribed location are further pursued.     

Nonlinear Wave in a Disc-Shaped Bose-Einstein Condensate

We discuss the possible nonlinear waves of atomic matter wave in a Bose-Einstein condensate. One and two of two-dimensional （2D） dark solitons in the Bose-Einstein condensed system are investigated. A rich dynamics is studied for the interactions between two solitons. The interaction profiles of two solitons are greatly different if the angle between them are different. If the angle is small enough, the maximum amplitude during the interaction between two solitons is even less than that of a single soliton. However, if the angle is large enough, the maximum amplitude of two solitons can gradually attend to the sum of two soliton amplitudes.     

Evaporative cooling of 87Rb atoms into Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical dipole trap

We create a Bose-Einstein condensate(BEC) of 87Rb atoms by runaway evaporative cooling in an optical trap.Two crossed infrared laser beams with a wavelength of 1064 nm are used to form an optical dipole trap.After precooling the atom samples in a quadrupole-Ioffe configuration(QUIC) trap under 1.5 μK by radio-frequency(RF) evaporative cooling,the samples are transferred into the center of the glass cell,then loaded into the optical dipole trap with 800 ms.The pure condensate with up to 1.5×105 atoms is obtained over 1.17 s by lowering the power of the trap beams.     

Effect of interaction strength on gap solitons of Bose--Einstein condensates in optical lattices

We have developed a systematic analytical approach to the study on the dynamic properties of the linear and the nonlinear excitations for quasi-one-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in optical lattices. A novel linear dispersion relation and an algebraic soliton solution of the condensate are derived analytically under consideration of Bose-Einstein condensate with a periodic potential. By analysing the soliton solution, we find that the interatomic interaction strength has an important effect on soliton dynamic properties of Bose-Einstein condensate.     

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.     

Coherent Scattering of Light by Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Tight Confinement

We have observed strong scattering of a probe light by dilute Bose-Einstein condensate （BEC） ^87Rb gas in a tight magnetic trap. The scattering light forms fringes at the image plane. It is found that we can infer the real size of the condensation and the number of the atoms by modelling the imaging system. We present a quantitative calculation of light scattering by the condensed atoms. The calculation shows that the experimental results agree well with the prediction of the generalized diffraction theory, and thus we can directly observe the phase transition of BEC in a tight trap.     

Behaviour of Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensates Under Shrinking

When the repulsive interaction strength between atoms decreases, the size of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate will consequently shrink. We find that the rotational frequency will increase during the shrinking of condensate, which is a quantum mechanical analogy to ballet dancing. Compared to a non-rotating condensate, the size of a rotating BEC will eventually be saturated at a finite value when the interaction strength is gradually reduced. We also calculate the vortex dynamics induced by the atomic current, and discuss the difference of vortex dynamics in this case and that observed in a recent experiment carried out by the JILA group [Phys. Rev. Lett.90 (2003) 170405].     

Variational Monte Carlo analysis of Bose--Einstein condensation in a two-dimensional trap

The ground-state properties of a system with a small number of interacting bosons over a wide range of densities are investigated. The system is confined in a two-dimensional isotropic harmonic trap, where the interaction between bosons is treated as a hard-core potential. By using variational Monte Carlo method, we diagonalize the one-body density matrix of the system to obtain the ground-state energy, condensate wavefunction and the condensate fraction. We find that in the dilute limit the depletion of central condensate in the 2D system is larger than in a 3D system for the same interaction strength; however as the density increases, the depletion at the centre of 2D trap will be equal to or even lower than that at the centre of 3D trap, which is in agreement with the anticipated in Thomas--Fermi approximation. In addition, in the 2D system the total condensate depletion is still larger than in a 3D system for the same scattering length.     

Production of Rubidium Bose-Einstein Condensate in an Optically Plugged Magnetic Quadrupole Trap

We experimentally produce the rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in an optically plugged magnetic quadrupole trap.A far blue-detuned focused laser beam with a wavelength of 532 nm is plugged in the center of the magnetic quadrupole trap to increase the number of trapped atoms and to suppress the heating.An rf evaporative cooling in the magneto-optical hybrid trap is applied to decrease the atom temperature into degeneracy.The atom number of the condensate is 1.2(0.4)× 10~5 and the temperature is below 100 nK.We also study characteristic behaviors of the condensate,such as phase space density,condensate fraction and anisotropic expansion.     

Possible Instability of the Ground State of Two-Flavour Colour Superconductor Induced by Colour Neutrality

The diquark condensate susceptibility in neutral colour superconductor at moderate baryon density is calculated in the frame of the two-flavour Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with the mean field approximation. When colour chemical potential is introduced to keep charge neutrality, the dlquark condensate susceptibility ＆ negative in the directions without diquark condensate in colour space, which may be regarded as a signal of the instability of the conventional ground state with only diquark condensate in the colour-3 direction.     

Estimating optical lattice alignment by RF spectroscopy

A method that uses radio frequency (RF) spectroscopy to evaluate the alignment of an optical lattice is proposed and demonstrated. A one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice is applied along the long axis of a cigar-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a magnetic trap. The RF spectra of condensates with and without the optical lattice are analyzed, measured, and compared with the condition in which the lattice is misaligned with the BEC. The proposed method greatly optimizes the optical alignments of the lattices.     

Bose-Einstein Condensates in a One-Dimensional Optical Lattice: from Superfluidity to Number-Squeezed States

We study the phase coherence property of Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice formed by a standing-wave laser field. The lattice depth is determined using a method of Kapitza-Dirac scattering between a condensate and a short pulse lattice potential. Condensates are then adiabatically loaded into the optical lattice. The phase coherence property of the confined condensates is reflected by the interference patterns of the expanded atomic cloud released from the optical lattice. For weak lattice, nearly all of the atoms stay in a superfluid state. However, as the lattice depth is increased, the phase coherence of the whole condensate sample is gradually lost, which confirms that the sub-condensates in each lattice well have evolved into number-squeezed states.     

Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Linear Trap with a Dimple Potential

We study Bose-Einstein condensation in a linear trap with a dimple potential where we model dimple potentials by Dirac δ function. Attractive and repulsive dimple potentials are taken into account. This model allows simple, explicit numerical and analytical investigations of noninteracting gases. Thus, the Schrdinger equation is used instead of the Gross-Pitaevski equation. We calculate the atomic density, the chemical potential, the critical temperature and the condensate fraction. The role of the relative depth of the dimple potential with respect to the linear trap in large condensate formation at enhanced temperatures is clearly revealed. Moreover, we also present a semi-classical method for calculating various quantities such as entropy analytically. Moreover, we compare the results of this paper with the results of a previous paper in which the harmonic trap with a dimple potential in 1D is investigated.     

Controlling Chaotic Behavior in a Bose-Einstein Condensate with Linear Feedback

The spatial structure of a Bose-Einstein condensate （BEC） loaded into an optical lattice potential is investigated and the spatially chaotic distributions of the condensates are revealed. A method of chaos control with linear feedback is presented in this paper. By using the method, we propose a scheme of controlling chaotic behavior in a BEC with atomic mirrors. The results of the computer simulation show that controlling the chaos into the stable states could be realized by adjusting the coefficient of feedback only if the maximum Lyapunov exponent of the system is negative.     

Coherent Superposition States of Atoms and Molecules in a Bose—Einstein Condensate with Exactly Bananced Photo—Associations and Photo—Dissociations

We show that there exist a series of coherent superposition states of atoms and molecules in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate with exactly balanced photo-associations and photo-dissociations,and their analytical expressions are explicitly given.They also correspond to the coherent superposition states of two kinds of hpotons in optical second harmonic generation processes,which shows exactly balaced down-and up-conversions.     

Phase transition of Bose–Einstein condensate under decoherence

The effect of decoherence on the phase transition of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a symmetric double-well potential is determined by the mean atom number difference. It still has two phases, the tunneling phase and the self-trapping phase, even under decoherence. The density matrix and the operator fidelity also show very different behaviors in the two phases. This suggests that operator fidelity can be used to characterize the phase transition of this Bose-Einstein condensate model, even under decoherence.