Optical creation of dark-bright soliton lattices in multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates

TL;DR

This paper introduces an accessible optical method for creating and studying dark-bright soliton lattices in Bose-Einstein condensates, demonstrating their stability and dynamics under various conditions.

Contribution

The authors propose a new experimental technique using a dark state in a three-level system to generate and analyze soliton lattices in atomic BECs.

Findings

Individual solitons can survive over experimental timescales after laser switch-off.

Lattice stability depends on scattering lengths, persisting when they are equal.

Destabilization leads to recurrent dynamics or lattice destruction depending on scattering lengths.

Abstract

We present a widely accessible and experimentally realizable technique for the controlled creation of dark-bright solitons and soliton lattices in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. The method is based on preparing the condensate in a dark state of a $\Lambda$-coupled three-level system. Numerical simulations reveal that individual dark-bright solitons created through this scheme can survive over experimentally accessible timescales, even when the coupling laser fields are switched off. Meanwhile, the fate of soliton lattices upon the quench of the fields depends on the scattering lengths. When they are all equal, the lattice is found to persist on timescales comparable to the condensate lifetime, even though the analysis of dynamical stability reveals that they possess unstable modes. In this case the resulting destabilization is not found to be detrimental, as it leads to recurrent dynamics. On the other hand, for unequal scattering lengths the lattice structure gets destroyed once the instability sets in.