Superradiant light scattering from a moving Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper explores how a moving Bose-Einstein condensate interacts with a laser, leading to superradiant scattering and matter-wave grating damping, modeled by a generalized CARL-BEC framework.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized CARL-BEC model to describe superradiant scattering in moving BECs, incorporating decoherence effects due to initial velocity.

Findings

Evidence of velocity-dependent damping of matter-wave gratings

Phase-diffusion decoherence explains observed damping

Good agreement between model and experimental data

Abstract

We investigate the interaction of a moving BEC with a far detuned laser beam. Superradiant Rayleigh scattering arises from the spontaneous formation of a matter-wave grating due to the interference of two wavepackets with different momenta. The system is described by the CARL-BEC model which is a generalization of the Gross-Pitaevskii model to include the self-consistent evolution of the scattered field. The experiment gives evidence of a damping of the matter-wave grating which depends on the initial velocity of the condensate. We describe this damping in terms of a phase-diffusion decoherence process, in good agreement with the experimental results.