Photo-Solitonic Effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that dark solitons in 1D Bose liquids can be generated by absorbing a single photon, revealing a quantum photoelectric-like effect with a characteristic power-law probability dependence.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a photo-solitonic effect where solitons are created via single-photon absorption, highlighting the quantum nature of this process.

Findings

Solitons can be created by a single photon absorption in 1D Bose liquids.

The probability of creation follows a power-law dependence on frequency detuning.

The process exhibits signatures of quantum orthogonality catastrophe.

Abstract

We show that dark solitons in 1D Bose liquids may be created by absorption of a single quanta of an external ac field, in a close analogy with the Einstein's photoelectric effect. Similarly to the von Lenard's experiment with photoexcited electrons, the external field's photon energy $\hbar\omega$ should exceed a certain threshold. In our case the latter is given by the soliton energy $\varepsilon_s(\hbar q)$ with the momentum $\hbar q$, where $q$ is photon's wavenumber. We find the probability of soliton creation to have a power-law dependence on the frequency detuning $\omega-\varepsilon_s/\hbar$. This dependence is a signature of the quantum nature of the absorption process and the orthogonality catastrophe phenomenon associated with it.