Spinor molecule in atomic Bose–Einstein condensate

We have performed two-photon photoassociation experiments in atomic Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of ⁸⁷Rb with spin degree of freedom which is created by all-optical method with CO₂ lasers. The spinor character of the molecules has been revealed by the photoassociation spectrum with a new structure. The hyperfine structure of the molecules near the dissociation limit is identified by observations of the Zeeman and AC-Stark effects of the molecules. The molecules have been spin-selectively probed by the use of the light shift. This result would open the new possibility of research on novel spinor molecular BEC.     

Spatial structure of a Bose–Einstein condensate in a combined trap

We study the spatial structure of a Bose–Einstein condensate(BEC) with a space-dependent s-wave scattering length in a combined trap. There exists a space-dependent nonlinear atomic current in the system. The atomic current has an important influence on the spatial structure of the BEC. Research findings reveal that a large chemical potential can effectively suppress the chaotic spatial structure in the BEC system. Due to the large chemical potential, a strong atomic current is necessary to make...     

Vector kink-dark complex solitons in a three-component Bose–Einstein condensate

We investigate kink-dark complex solitons(KDCSs) in a three-component Bose–Einstein condensate(BEC) with repulsive interactions and pair-transition(PT) effects. Soliton profiles critically depend on the phase differences between dark solitons excitation elements. We report a type of kink-dark soliton profile which shows a droplet-bubble-droplet with a density dip, in sharp contrast to previously studied bubble-droplets. The interaction between two KDCSs is further investigated. It demonstrates some striking particle transition behaviours during their collision processes, while soliton profiles survive after the collision. Additionally, we exhibit the state transition dynamics between a kink soliton and a dark soliton. These results suggest that PT effects can induce more abundant complex solitons dynamics in multi-component BEC.     

Bose–Einstein condensate on a persistent-supercurrent atom chip

A Bose–Einstein condensate was achieved in a stable magnetic trap on a persistent-supercurrent atom chip with a superconducting closed-loop circuit. We determined precisely the shape of the magnetic trapping potential by systematically controlling the persistent supercurrent. The condensation was verified by time-of-flight imaging and by atom number decay measurements. The measured decay rates agreed quantitatively with numerical simulations on the three-body loss process assuming all of the atoms to be a condensate. We also discuss the feasibility of creating a quasi-one-dimensional Bose gas on our atom chip.     

Expansion dynamics of a spherical Bose–Einstein condensate

We experimentally and theoretically observe the expansion behaviors of a spherical Bose–Einstein condensate. A rubidium condensate is produced in an isotropic optical dipole trap with an asphericity of 0.037. We measure the variation of the condensate size in the expansion process after switching off the trap. The free expansion of the condensate is isotropic,which is different from that of the condensate usually produced in the anisotropic trap. We derive an analytic solution of the expansion behavior based on the spherical symmetry, allowing a quantitative comparison with the experimental measurement. The interaction energy of the condensate is gradually converted into the kinetic energy during the expansion and after a long time the kinetic energy saturates at a constant value. We obtain the interaction energy of the condensate in the trap by probing the long-time expansion velocity, which agrees with the theoretical calculation. This work paves a way to explore novel quantum states of ultracold gases with the spherical symmetry.     

Three-body decay of a rubidium Bose–Einstein condensate

We have measured the three-body decay of a Bose–Einstein condensate of rubidium (⁸⁷Rb) atoms prepared in the doubly polarized ground state F=m _F =2. Our data are taken for a peak atomic density in the condensate varying between 2×10¹⁴ cm^-3 at initial time and 7×10¹³ cm^-3, 16 s later. Taking into account the influence of the uncondensed atoms on the decay of the condensate, we deduce a rate constant for condensed atoms L=1.8 (±0.5) ×10^-29 cm⁶ s^-1. For these densities we did not find a significant contribution of two-body processes such as spin dipole relaxation. Received: 24 November 1998 / Revised version: 26 June 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999     

Optimized production of a cesium Bose–Einstein condensate

We report on the optimized production of a Bose–Einstein condensate of cesium atoms using an optical trapping approach. Based on an improved trap loading and evaporation scheme we obtain more than 10⁵ atoms in the condensed phase. To test the tunability of the interaction in the condensate we study the expansion of the condensate as a function of scattering length. We further excite strong oscillations of the trapped condensate by rapidly varying the interaction strength. PACS 03.75.Kk; 32.80.Pj     

Bragg spectroscopy and superradiant Rayleigh scattering in a Bose–Einstein condensate

Two sets of studies concerning the interaction of off-resonant light with a sodium Bose–Einstein condensate are described. In the first set, properties of a Bose–Einstein condensate were studied using Bragg spectroscopy. The high momentum and energy resolution of this method allowed a spectroscopic measurement of the mean-field energy and of the intrinsic momentum distribution of the condensate. Depending on the momentum transfer, both the phonon regime as well as the free-particle regime could be explored. In the second set of studies, the cigar-shaped condensate was exposed to a single off-resonant laser beam and highly directional scattering of light and atoms was observed. This collective light scattering was caused by the long coherence time of the quasi-particles in the condensate and resulted in a new form of matter wave amplification. Received: 26 June 1999 / Revised version: 21 September 1999 / Published online: 10 November 1999     

Domain walls and their interactions in a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate

We investigate domain wall excitations in a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate with two-body interactions and pair-transition effects. It is shown that domain wall excitations can be described exactly by kink and anti-kink excitations in each component. The domain wall solutions are given analytically, which exist with different conditions compared with the domain wall reported before. Bubble-droplet structure can be also obtained from the fundamental domain wall, and their interactions are investigated analytically. Especially, domain wall interactions demonstrate some striking particle transition dynamics. These striking transition effects make the domain wall admit quite different collision behavior, in contrast to the collision between solitons or other nonlinear waves. The collisions between kinks induce some phase shift, which makes the domain wall change greatly. Their collisions can be elastic or inelastic with proper combination of fundamental domain walls. These characters can be used to manipulate one domain wall by interacting with other ones.     

The forces on a single interacting Bose–Einstein condensate

Using double parabola approximation for a single Bose–Einstein condensate confined between double slabs we proved that in grand canonical ensemble (GCE) the ground state with Robin boundary condition (BC) is favored, whereas in canonical ensemble (CE) our system undergoes from ground state with Robin BC to the one with Dirichlet BC in small-L region and vice versa for large-L region and phase transition in space of the ground state is the first order. The surface tension force and Casimir force are also considered in both CE and GCE in detail.     

Critical number of solitons in the Bose–Einstein condensate

The dynamics of solitons in the Bose–Einstein condensate under the effect of the fluctuation interaction of condensate atoms is studied. A system of equations of motion describing changes in the parameters of the soliton wave function is obtained using the method of the averaged Lagrangian. The minimum critical number of solitons is found, and the influence of the fluctuation interaction on the dynamics of solitons near their critical width is studied.     

Dynamics of nonautonomous rogue waves in Bose–Einstein condensate

We study rogue waves of Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) analytically in a time-dependent harmonic trap with a complex potential. Properties of the nonautonomous rogue waves are investigated analytically. It is reported that there are possibilities to ‘catch’ rogue waves through manipulating nonlinear interaction properly. The results provide many possibilities to manipulate rogue waves experimentally in a BEC system.     

Levitating soliton of the Bose–Einstein condensate

We have proposed a mechanical model that corresponds to the Newton equation for describing the dynamics of an oscillon, viz., a soliton-like cluster of the Bose–Einstein condensate (with atomic attraction) placed above an oscillating atomic mirror in a uniform gravitational field. The model describes the stochastic Fermi acceleration and periodic, quasi-periodic, and chaotic motion of the oscillon center, as well as hysteresis phenomena in the case of a slow variation of mirror oscillation frequency, which are in good agreement with the results obtained using the Gross–Pitaevskii equation.     

Dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate soliton on a two-dimensional optical lattice

Using a three-dimensional mean-field model we study one-dimensional dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) solitons on a weak two-dimensional (2D) square and triangular optical lattice (OL) potentials placed perpendicular to the polarization direction. The stabilization against collapse and expansion of these solitons for a fixed dipolar interaction and a fixed number of atoms is possible for short-range atomic interaction lying between two critical limits. The solitons collapse below the lower limit and escapes to infinity above the upper limit. One can also stabilize identical tiny BEC solitons arranged on the 2D square OL sites forming a stable 2D array of interacting droplets when the OL sites are filled with a filling factor of 1/2 or less. Such an array is unstable when the filling factor is made more than 1/2 by occupying two adjacent sites of OL. These stable 2D arrays of dipolar superfluid BEC solitons are quite similar to the recently studied dipolar Mott insulator states on 2D lattice in the Bose–Hubbard model by Capogrosso-Sansone et al. [B. Capogrosso-Sansone, C. Trefzger, M. Lewenstein, P. Zoller, G. Pupillo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 (2010) 125301].     

Dynamics of Bose–Einstein condensate in a harmonic potential and a Gaussian energy barrier

We have studied the dynamics of Bose–Einstein condensate by solving numerically the Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation. We examined the periodic behaviour of the condensate in a shifted harmonic potential, and further demonstrated the tunneling effect of a condensate through a Gaussian energy barrier, which is inserted after the condensate has been excited by shifting the harmonic trapping potential to a side. Moreover, it is shown that the initial condensate evolves dynamically into two separate moving condensates after the tunneling time under certain conditions.     

Dimensional crossover of a Rabi-coupled two-component Bose–Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

Dimensionality is a central concept in developing the theory of low-dimensional physics.However,previous research on dimensional crossover in the context of a Bose-Einstein condensate(BEC) has focused on the single-component BEC.To our best knowledge,further consideration of the two-component internal degrees of freedom on the effects of dimensional crossover is still lacking.In this work,we are motivated to investigate the dimensional crossover in a three-dimensional(3D) Rabi-coupled two-compon...     

Dark soliton in one-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate under a periodic perturbation of trap

The perturbation of a confining trap leads to the collective oscillation of a Bose--Einstein condensate, thereby the propagation of a dark soliton in the condensate is affected. In this study, periodic perturbation is employed to match the soliton oscillation. We find that the soliton dynamics depends sensitively on the coupling between the moving direction of the trap and that of the soliton. The soliton energy/depth evolves periodically, and a relevant shift in the soliton trajectory occurs as compared with the unperturbed case. Overall, the soliton oscillation frequency changes little even if the perturbation amplitude and frequency vary.