Dispersion management for atomic matter waves

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to control the dispersion of atomic matter waves using periodic optical potentials, enabling manipulation of wave packet dynamics through effective mass tuning in a Bose-Einstein condensate system.

Contribution

It introduces a method of dispersion management for matter waves using optical lattices, analogous to photon optics techniques, and explores the effects of effective mass variations.

Findings

Controlled dispersion of matter waves achieved.

Reversal of wave packet dynamics via negative effective mass.

Experimental signatures of infinite effective mass observed.

Abstract

We demonstrate the control of the dispersion of matter wave packets utilizing periodic potentials. This is analogous to the technique of dispersion management known in photon optics. Matter wave packets are realized by Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb in an optical dipole potential acting as a one-dimensional waveguide. A weak optical lattice is used to control the dispersion relation of the matter waves during the propagation of the wave packets. The dynamics are observed in position space and interpreted using the concept of effective mass. By switching from positive to negative effective mass, the dynamics can be reversed. The breakdown of the approximation of constant, as well as experimental signatures of an infinite effective mass are studied.