Rotating and spiralling spatial dissipative solitons of light and cold atoms

TL;DR

This paper explores the formation, dynamics, and stability of rotating and spiralling spatial dissipative solitons in cold atom clouds driven by light within a ring cavity, revealing complex behaviors and potential atomic transport mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of rotating and spiralling atom-light solitons in a cavity, analyzing their stability and interactions, which is a novel insight into optomechanical soliton dynamics.

Findings

Stable localized soliton-like excitations can form below the instability threshold.

Complex rotating and spiralling motions of solitons can be induced by phase gradients.

Soliton chains exhibit stability considerations based on soliton-soliton interactions.

Abstract

Clouds of cold neutral atoms driven by a coherent light beam in a ring cavity exhibit self-structured states transversely with respect to the beam axis due to optomechanical forces and the back action of the atomic structures on the beam. Below the instability threshold for extended hexagonal structures, localized soliton-like excitations can be stable. These constitute peaks or holes of atom density, depending on the linear susceptibility of the cloud. Complex rotating and spiralling motion of coupled atom-light solitons, and hence atomic transport, can be achieved via phase gradients in the input field profile. We also discuss the stability of rotating soliton chains in view of soliton-soliton interactions. The investigations are performed in a cavity scheme but expected to apply to other longitudinally pumped schemes with diffractive coupling.