Rydberg-Induced Solitons: Three-Dimensional Self-Trapping of Matter Waves

Journal Article · Fri Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.170401· OSTI ID:21538294

Maucher, F; Henkel, N; Pohl, T ^[1]; Saffman, M ^[2]; Krolikowski, W ^[3]; Skupin, S ^[1]

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1. Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden (Germany)
2. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
3. Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 (Australia)

We propose a scheme for the creation of stable three-dimensional bright solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates, i.e., the matter-wave analog of so-called spatiotemporal ''light bullets.'' Off-resonant dressing to Rydberg nD states is shown to provide nonlocal attractive interactions, leading to self-trapping of mesoscopic atomic clouds by a collective excitation of a Rydberg atom pair. We present detailed potential calculations and demonstrate the existence of stable solitons under realistic experimental conditions by means of numerical simulations.

• OSTI ID: 21538294
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 17; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.170401; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
COLLECTIVE EXCITATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
INTERACTIONS
RADIOACTIVE CLOUDS
SOLITONS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRAPPING
CLOUDS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
QUASI PARTICLES
SIMULATION