Attractive Multidimensional Condensates--Experiments

TL;DR

This paper reviews experimental studies on attractive Bose-Einstein condensates, focusing on their dynamics, stability, and formation of multidimensional solitons, including recent observations of Townes and vortex solitons.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental advances in trapping, interaction control, and observation of multidimensional attractive condensates and solitons.

Findings

Observation of bright solitons and their collisions in BECs

Detection of two-dimensional Townes and vortex solitons

Experimental evidence of nonclassical signatures of modulational instability

Abstract

Experiments on attractive Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) have unlocked many intriguing out-of-equilibrium dynamics through the interplay between matter-wave dispersion and nonlinear attractive interaction. Competition between these effects leads to fascinating phenomena such as wave collapse, modulational instability, and formation of multidimensional bright solitons. This chapter reviews experimental studies on attractive condensates, with a primary focus on alkali atoms featuring two-body contact interactions. We review recent experimental advances in optical trapping and interaction control techniques, which have enabled new studies on attractive condensates in three and also in lower dimensions. Specifically, we discuss pioneering and recent experimental observations on the dynamics and stability of attractive BECs, including the formation of bright solitons, their collisions, and excitations in quasi-one-dimensional traps. Recent observations of the elusive two-dimensional Townes solitons and vortex solitons are also discussed in this Chapter. We then highlight an experimental technique revealing the nonclassical signatures of modulational instability in an attractive condensate.