Propagation of short pulses through a Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates how short laser pulses propagate through a Bose-Einstein condensate, focusing on dispersive effects and conditions leading to pulse distortion in slow-light experiments.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of dispersion effects on short pulses in BECs under electromagnetically induced transparency conditions, including numerical simulations and theoretical estimations.

Findings

Dispersion causes pulse distortions under certain conditions.

Calculated dispersion coefficients for typical experimental parameters.

Identified conditions where pulse shape remains intact.

Abstract

We study propagation of short laser pulses in a Bose-Einstein condensate taking into account dispersive effects under the conditions for electromagnetically induced transparency. We calculate dispersion coefficients using typical experimental parameters of slow-light schemes in condensates. By numerically propagating the laser pulse, and referring to theoretical estimations, we determine the conditions for which dispersion starts to introduce distortions on the pulse shape.