Interactions in confined polariton condensates

We investigate the effect of interactions in zero-dimensional polariton condensates. The shape of the condensate wave function is shown to be modified by repulsive interactions with the reservoir of uncondensed excitons. In large micropillar cavities, when uncondensed excitons are located at the center, the condensate is ejected toward the pillar edges. The same effect results in the generation of optical traps in wire cavities. Once polariton condensates are spatially separated from the excitonic reservoir, spectral signatures of polariton-polariton interactions within the condensate are evidenced.     

Polarization and propagation of polariton condensates

With the use of the generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation it is shown that exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities form a linearly polarized condensate having two branches of the excitation spectrum. The splitting between these branches is strongly anisotropic. This anisotropy noticeably affects the real-space dynamics of polariton condensates.     

Half vortices in exciton polariton condensates

It is shown that vortices in linearly polarized polariton condensates in planar semiconductor microcavities carry two winding numbers (k, m). These numbers can be either integer or half-integer simultaneously. Four half-integer vortices (1/2, 1/2), (-1/2, -1/2), (1/2, -1/2), and (-1/2, 1/2) are anisotropic, possess the smallest energy, and define the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature. The condensate concentration remains finite within the core of the half vortex and the condensate polarization becomes fully circular in the core center.     

Controllability of shock waves in one-dimensional polariton condensates

In one-dimensional incoherent pumped exciton–polariton condensates, we realize the generation and control of supersonic shock waves. By choosing a suitable initial input wave, we obtain the region of existence of various shock waves as a function of the phase of the initial wave, the coefficient of polariton interaction, the coefficient of the interaction between polariton and reservoir and the condensation rate and intensity of pumping. Using these results, we discuss the effect of different pa...     

Backscattering suppression in supersonic 1D polariton condensates

We investigate the effect of disorder on the propagation of one-dimensional polariton condensates in semiconductor microcavities. We observe a strong suppression of the backscattering produced by the imperfections of the structure when increasing the condensate density. This suppression occurs in the supersonic regime and is simultaneous to the onset of parametric instabilities which enable the "hopping" of the condensate through the disorder. Our results evidence a new mechanism for the strong scattering reduction of polaritons at high speeds.     

Renormalized dispersion of elementary excitations in spinor polariton condensates

We analyse the polarization of spinor polariton condensates and corresponding dispersions of elementary excitations. We have considered the effects of magnetic field induced splitting in circular polarizations and residual splitting in linear polarizations in the ground state provided by the cavity asymmetry. We show that anisotropic polariton–polariton interactions fully compensate the Zeeman splitting in circular polarizations below the critical magnetic field, thus leading to the spin-Meissner effect for the polariton condensates. We also analyzed the effect of polariton–polariton interactions on the stability of the gap in linear polarizations characteristic for anisotropic microcavities. It was shown that in realistic systems this gap increases with concentration of the particles, thus contributing to the stability of the pinning of linear polarization of photoemission in semiconductor microcavities for pump intensities above the stimulation threshold.     

Bessel型光晶格中自旋-轨道耦合极化激元凝聚的稳态结构

Bessel型光晶格是一种非空间周期性的柱对称的光晶格势场,其兼具无限深势阱和环状势阱的特征,在0阶Bessel光晶格势场中央形成深势阱,而在非0阶Beseel光晶格势场中能形成具有中央势垒的环状浅势阱.极化激元是一种半光半物质的准粒子,该准粒子甚至可以在室温条件下发生玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚相变,形成极化激元凝聚.另外,通过极化激元能级的腔诱导TE-TM分裂能在极化激元凝聚中实现足够强的自旋-轨道耦合作用.极化激元凝聚能在室温条件下实现,在其中又存在自旋-轨道耦合作用,其为量子物理的研究提供了全新的平台.本文把Bessel光晶格势场引入到极化激元凝聚系统,研究了存在自旋-轨道耦合作用下的旋量双组分极化激元凝聚系统的稳态结构.通过求解Gross-Pitaevskii方程给出了极化激元凝聚系统在实验室坐标系和旋转坐标系中极化激元凝聚系统的稳态结构,由于Bessel势场的引入,使得稳态结构更具有多样性.给出了实验室坐标系中在中央深势阱中存在的基础型高斯孤立子、多极孤立子和在环状浅势阱中存在环状孤立子和多极孤立子的稳态结构;给出了旋转坐标系中存在的涡旋环状孤立子,及其由于自旋-轨道相互作用引起的组...     

Roles of surfaces in polariton dynamics

We develop the additional boundary conditions in the particle picture for the film medium. Then polariton dynamics can be discussed taking into account the reflection effects at the front and rear surfaces. At normal incidence of laser light with frequency larger than the longitudinal exciton, upper-branch polaritons (with small wave number) are by a few orders of magnitude more densely excited than lower ones with large wave number. In the film medium, however, they are almost equalized because the latters are accumulated in the medium although the formers escape easily from both the surfaces. Second, lower-branch polaritons are reflected into lower or upper ones with opposite wave numbers in sign so that the correlation effect among them is induced. These are discussed quantitatively refering to the observations by Kuwata and Nagasawa.     

Nonlinear lattice dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) model, which was proposed 50 years ago to examine thermalization in nonmetallic solids and develop "experimental" techniques for studying nonlinear problems, continues to yield a wealth of results in the theory and applications of nonlinear Hamiltonian systems with many degrees of freedom. Inspired by the studies of this seminal model, solitary-wave dynamics in lattice dynamical systems have proven vitally important in a diverse range of physical problems-including energy relaxation in solids, denaturation of the DNA double strand, self-trapping of light in arrays of optical waveguides, and Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) in optical lattices. BECs, in particular, due to their widely ranging and easily manipulated dynamical apparatuses-with one to three spatial dimensions, positive-to-negative tuning of the nonlinearity, one to multiple components, and numerous experimentally accessible external trapping potentials-provide one of the most fertile grounds for the analysis of solitary waves and their interactions. In this paper, we review recent research on BECs in the presence of deep periodic potentials, which can be reduced to nonlinear chains in appropriate circumstances. These reductions, in turn, exhibit many of the remarkable nonlinear structures (including solitons, intrinsic localized modes, and vortices) that lie at the heart of the nonlinear science research seeded by the FPU paradigm.     

Entanglement dynamics in two-component Bose--Einstein condensates

Based on the exact solution of the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation for two-species Bose--Einstein condensates (BECs) consisting of two hyperfine states of the atoms coupled by a tuned adiabatic and time-varying Raman coupling, we obtain analytically the entanglement dynamics of the system with various initial states, particularly the SU(2) coherent state, for both of cases with and without the nonlinear interactions. It is shown that the effect of nonlinear interaction on the entanglement appears only in a longer time period depending on the BEC parameters.     

Gross-Pitaevskii non-linear dynamics for pseudo-spinor condensates

We derive the equations for the non-linear effective dynamics of a so called pseudo-spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, which emerges from the linear many-body Schrödinger equation at the leading order in the number of particles. The considered system is a three-dimensional diluted gas of identical bosons with spin, possibly confined in space, and coupled with an external time-dependent magnetic field; particles also interact among themselves through a short-scale repulsive interaction. The limit of infinitely many particles is monitored in the physically relevant Gross-Pitaevskii scaling. In our main theorem, if at time zero the system is in a phase of complete condensation (at the level of the reduced one-body marginal) and with energy per particle fixed by the Gross-Pitaevskii functional, then such conditions persist also at later times, with the one-body orbital of the condensate evolving according to a system of non-linear cubic Schrödinger equations coupled among themselves through linear (Rabi) terms. The proof relies on an adaptation to the spinor setting of Pickl’s projection counting method developed for the scalar case. Quantitative rates of convergence are available, but not made explicit because evidently non-optimal. In order to substantiate the formalism and the assumptions made in the main theorem, in an introductory section we review the mathematical formalisation of modern typical experiments with pseudo-spinor condensates.     

Mean-field dynamics of spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the interaction between the spin and momentum of a quantum particle, is crucial for many important condensed matter phenomena. The recent experimental realization of SOC in neutral bosonic cold atoms provides a new and ideal platform for investigating spin-orbit coupled quantum many-body physics. In this Letter, we derive a generic Gross-Pitaevskii equation as the starting point for the study of many-body dynamics in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. We show that different laser setups for realizing the same SOC may lead to different mean-field dynamics. Various ground state phases (stripe, phase separation, etc.) of the condensate are found in different parameter regions. A new oscillation period induced by the SOC, similar to the Zitterbewegung oscillation, is found in the center-of-mass motion of the condensate.     

Effective one-dimensional dynamics of elongated Bose-Einstein condensates

By using a variational approach in combination with the adiabatic approximation we derive a new effective 1D equation of motion for the axial dynamics of elongated condensates. For condensates with vorticity ∣q∣ = 0 or 1, this equation coincides with our previous proposal [A. Muñoz Mateo, V. Delgado, Phys. Rev. A 77 (2008) 013617]. We also rederive the nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation (NPSE) in terms of the adiabatic approximation. This provides a unified treatment for obtaining the different effective equations and allows appreciating clearly the differences and similarities between the various proposals. We also obtain an expression for the axial healing length of cigar-shaped condensates and show that, in the local density approximation and in units of the axial oscillator length, it coincides with the inverse of the condensate axial half-length. From this result it immediately follows the necessary condition for the validity of the local density approximation. Finally, we obtain analytical formulas that give the frequency of the axial breathing mode with accuracy better than 1%. These formulas can be relevant from an experimental point of view since they can be expressed in terms only of the axial half-length and remain valid in the crossover between the Thomas-Fermi and the quasi-1D mean-field regimes. We have corroborated the validity of our results by numerically solving the full 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation.     

Vortex-lattice dynamics in rotating spinor Bose-Einstein condensates

We observe interlaced square vortex lattices in rotating dilute-gas spinor Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). After preparing a hexagonal vortex lattice in a one-component BEC in an internal atomic state |1, we coherently transfer a fraction of the superfluid to a different state |2. The subsequent evolution of this pseudo-spin-1/2 superfluid towards a state of offset square lattices involves an intriguing interplay of phase-separation and -mixing dynamics, both macroscopically and on the length scale of the vortex cores, and a stage of vortex turbulence. The stability of the square structure is proved by its response to applied shear perturbations. An interference technique shows the spatial offset between the two vortex lattices. Vortex cores in either component are filled by fluid of the other component, such that the spin-1/2 order parameter forms a Skyrmion lattice.     

一维双组分玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体系的量子隧穿特性

利用双模近似方法研究了一维双组分玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体(Bose-Einstein condensates,BECs)的量子隧穿特性.从描述三维双组分BECs系统的Gross-Pitaevskii方程(GPE)出发,得到了描述一维体系的GP方程.把体系波函数写成原子数和相位指数的乘积,得到描述体系隧穿特性的费曼方程.数值求解费曼方程,研究了原子之间相互作用(双组分BECs体系原子之间的相互作用包括组分内部原子之间的相互作用和不同组分原子之间的相互作用)对隧穿特性的影响.结果显示,当原子之间的相互作用较弱时,体系发生量子隧穿现象,表现为原子数在平衡位置附近作周期振荡;随着原子之间相互作用增强,体系经历一个临界状态,进入自俘获状态,即由于原子之间相互作用的存在,在对称双势阱中演化的BECs可以呈现出原子数高度的不对称分布,好像绝大数原子被其中一个势阱俘获.从隧穿到自俘获原子之间的相互作用存在一个临界值,从而体系的能量也对应一个临界值,根据体系的哈密顿函数,就能求出相互作用临界值的表达式.     

Binary mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates: Phase dynamics and spatial dynamics

We investigate the relative phase coherence properties and the occurrence of demixing instabilities for two mutually interacting and time evolving Bose-Einstein condensates in traps. Our treatment naturally includes the additional decoherence effect due to fluctuations in the total number of particles. Analytical results are presented for the breathe-together solution, an extension of previously known scaling solution to the case of a binary mixture of condensates. When the three coupling constants describing the elastic interactions among the atoms in the two states are close to each other, a dramatic increase of the phase coherence time is predicted. Numerical results are presented for the parameters of the recent JILA experiments. Received 23 April 1999 and Received in final form 21 September 1999     

Discrete nonlinear dynamics of weakly coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a periodic potential is governed by a discrete nonlinear equation. The interplay/competition between discreteness (introduced by the lattice) and nonlinearity (due to the interatomic interaction) manifests itself on nontrivial dynamical regimes which disappear in the continuum (translationally invariant) limit, and have been recently observed experimentally. We review some recent efforts on this highly interdisciplinary field, with the goal of stimulating interexchanges among the communities of condensed matter, quantum optics, and nonlinear physics.     

Photo-induced dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in optical superlattice

The photo-induced dynamics of cold atoms in a one-dimensional optical superlattice is observed. Steady state distribution of the probability amplitudes and the site population in a one-dimensional optical superlattice is found. It is shown that this solution of the equations, which describes the temporal behavior of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a superlattice, is unstable at the sufficiently high level of boson density. The expression for the increment of modulational instability is obtained on the basis of the linear stability analysis. The numerical examples of non-stationary solutions for boson density in a superlattice for the general model are discussed as applied to both the attraction and repulsion potentials of boson interaction.     

Semiclassical dynamics of quasi-one-dimensional, attractive Bose-Einstein condensates

The strongly interacting regime for attractive Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) tightly confined in an extended cylindrical trap is studied. For appropriately prepared, non-collapsing BECs, the ensuing dynamics are found to be governed by the one-dimensional focusing Nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) in the semiclassical (small dispersion) regime. In spite of the modulational instability of this regime, some mathematically rigorous results on the strong asymptotics of the semiclassical limiting solutions were obtained recently. Using these results, “implosion-like” and “explosion-like” events are predicted whereby an initial hump focuses into a sharp spike which then expands into rapid oscillations. Seemingly related behavior has been observed in three-dimensional experiments and models, where a BEC with a sufficient number of atoms undergoes collapse. The dynamical regimes studied here, however, are not predicted to undergo collapse. Instead, distinct, ordered structures, appearing after the “implosion”, yield interesting new observables that may be experimentally accessible.