Formation of a Matter-Wave Bright Soliton

TL;DR

This paper reports the creation and observation of stable matter-wave bright solitons in ultracold lithium-7 gases, demonstrating their potential for advanced atom optics applications.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental realization of matter-wave bright solitons in lithium-7 and a theoretical model explaining their stability.

Findings

Solitons propagated without dispersion over 1.1 mm

Tunable interactions via Feshbach resonance enabled soliton formation

Theoretical model matches observed stability regions

Abstract

We report the production of matter-wave solitons in an ultracold lithium 7 gas. The effective interaction between atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate is tuned with a Feshbach resonance from repulsive to attractive before release in a one-dimensional optical waveguide. Propagation of the soliton without dispersion over a macroscopic distance of 1.1 mm is observed. A simple theoretical model explains the stability region of the soliton. These matter-wave solitons open fascinating possibilities for future applications in coherent atom optics, atom interferometry and atom transport.