Manipulation of coherent atom waves using accelerated two-dimensional optical lattices

TL;DR

This paper investigates how accelerated 2D optical lattices can manipulate Bose-Einstein condensates, revealing mechanisms like Landau-Zener tunnelling and Bragg reflection for controlling coherent atom waves.

Contribution

It demonstrates novel methods to manipulate coherent atom waves using accelerated optical lattices, focusing on band structure effects and tunnelling phenomena.

Findings

Pulsed atom clouds exhibit patterned structures.

Landau-Zener tunnelling enables atom wave manipulation.

Bragg reflection can control condensate dynamics.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates in accelerated two-dimensional optical square lattices by numerically solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We consider the regime with negligible mean-field interactions and examine in detail the pulses of atom clouds ejected from the condensate due to Landau-Zener tunnelling. The pulses exhibit patterned structures that can be understood from the momentum-space dynamics of the condensate. Aside from conceiving realization of a pulsed two-dimensional atom laser, we demonstrate that, by exploring the band structure of the lattice, Landau-Zener tunnelling and Bragg reflection of the condensate inside the optical lattice can provide means for manipulation of coherent atom waves.