Collective excitations of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a 1D optical lattice

Visualization of dimensional effects in collective excitations of optically trapped quasi-two-dimensional Bose gases

In quasi-two dimensions (quasi-2D), where excitations are frozen in one direction, the scattering amplitudes exhibit 2D features of the particle motion and a 3D to 2D dimensional crossover emerges in the behavior of scattering. We explore its physical consequences, capitalizing on a hidden connection between the Pitaevskii-Rosch dynamical symmetry and breathing modes. We find broken Pitaevskii-Rosch symmetry by arbitrarily small 2D effects, inducing a frequency shift in breathing modes. The predicted shift rises significantly from the order of 0.5% to more than 5% in transiting from the 3D-scattering to the 2D-scattering regime. Comparisons with other relevant effects suggest our results are observable within current experimental capabilities.

Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential

An optical speckle potential is used to investigate the static and dynamic properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of disorder. With small levels of disorder, stripes are observed in the expanded density profile and strong damping of dipole and quadrupole oscillations is seen. Uncorrelated frequency shifts of the two modes are measured and are explained using a sum-rules approach and by the numerical solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation.

Transition radiation by matter-wave solitons in optical lattices

We demonstrate that matter-wave solitary pulses formed from Bose condensed atoms moving inside optical lattices continuously radiate dispersive matter waves with prescribed momentum. Our analytical results for the radiation parameters and the soliton decay rate are found to be in excellent agreement with numerical modeling performed for experimentally relevant parameters.

Optically induced lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving lattice

We report the experimental observation of a lensing effect on a Bose-Einstein condensate expanding in a moving 1D optical lattice. The effect of the periodic potential can be described by an effective mass dependent on the condensate quasimomentum. By changing the velocity of the atoms in the frame of the optical lattice, we induce a focusing of the condensate along the lattice direction. The experimental results are compared with the numerical predictions of an effective 1D theoretical model. In addition, a precise band spectroscopy of the system is carried out by looking at the real-space propagation of the atomic wave packet in the optical lattice.